Fixing the Past & Present
by DuckiBelle
Summary: After finding her fiance in bed with someone else, Hermione turns to a former friend, Harry Potter, for help. The two friends attempt to fix their present and their past to become even closer
1. Chapter 1

_This story is a repost from KaliMione77. It has been more fleshed out updated._

_I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in the world that J. K. Rowling. I just enjoy messing with her characters a little!_

_Hermione thoughts are in Italics._

**Fixing the Past & Present**

Ron was definitely terrified of me. He had scrambled off our bed when he first noticed me. He had tried to explain, but he was doing a piss poor job of it. He was currently backed up against his dresser.

"SAFE! I was safe! You kept dating me for three years because I was safe?" I said drawing my wand and pointing it at Ron's face.

"Hermione, th-th-that's not-t-t what I meant t-t-to say." Ron stammered as his eyes crossed to keep the point of my wand in his sight.

"Really, Ron that is not what you meant to say?" I said slowly as I turned my hand menacingly. "Then, what in the bloody hell **did** you mean to say?"

"I meant… I meant… I don't know what I meant." Ron whispered barely loud enough for me to hear. "You know my family. They would never accept me for being this way."

I slightly loosened my grip on my wand and lowered my arm. _I can't believe myself. I actually sort of feel bad for Ron and all of his insecurities._ "Are you kidding me? Your family is some of the most accepting people I have ever met. They accepted that your brother is now part werewolf. They adopted Harry and myself into your family. They forgave Narcissa and Draco Malfoy because they helped save the three of us multiple times! But you thought they wouldn't accept you being with someone that made you truly happy?"

"But what I have done… what I am… what I am doing is harder to accept than…"

"What you're doing is worse than evil, despicable acts that Narcissa and Draco participated in?" I huffed before taking a deep breath and continuing. "I don't think this is about your family not accepting you for who you are and what makes you happy. This is about you accepting yourself and you being a bloody coward!" I said taking a step back with my hands shaking. "Why did you even propose to me?"

He slid down his dresser to the floor as the truth of my words and my question hit him. He shook his head back and forth staring at his hands. "I am sorry, Hermione. I am so very sorry."

"Honestly, Ron, I don't give a shit if you are sorry. At this moment, I don't have a single forgiving bone in my body." I said turning around and started making my way out of our bedroom. "I will be back tomorrow evening for all of my things. You will not be here when I am. I don't want to see you for a long, long time."

I left the room and walked down the stairs of the house that Ron's Aunt Muriel had bought us when we had gotten engaged. I stopped on the bottom stair and placed my generic, run of the mill diamond engagement ring on the banister. I walked to the front door and stopped again. I called out to the silent, anxious, scared couple upstairs. "It was not so lovely to see you again, Kenneth."

As I shut the front door, I heard Ron beginning to scream as the bat-bogeys appeared on his face after I cast a non-verbal hex toward the ceiling.

I walked down the front path. I brushed my hands along the top of the silver rose bushes that I had planted just a few months ago. I opened the white picket gate and walked through. I looked up at the house I thought I would call home for the rest of my life and turned heel. Taking a deep breath, I tried to figure out my next move. I needed a place to stay for the night before I collapsed from exhaustion.

_Option one is going to the Leaky Cauldron and rent a room for the night. The beds aren't bad and Tom would be discrete. Then, I could easily get to Gringotts for work in the morning. On the other hand, I don't really feel like being alone tonight._

_I can't go to the Burrow. Molly and Arthur are Ron's parents. Besides, Ron will probably show up there for breakfast tomorrow morning, if Kenneth can help him reverse my hex._

_My parent's house is no longer an option. After Kingsley and I restored their memories, they forgave me and were even proud of me for wiping their memories and keeping them safe. We stay in touch by writing every week, but they chose to stay in Australia and they sold their house here in England. I could go stay with them in Australia, but I am too angry to apparate that far and I have to work in the morning._

_Bill and Fleur would welcome me at Shell Cottage. Then, Bill and I can floo to work together. It is Bill's first night home after being home after being with me in Egypt for the last two weeks. I am sure that he didn't walk in on what I walked in on earlier. Plus, Fleur fusses and hovers more than Molly ever since Victoire was born._

_George's large flat above his shop was not an option either. He and Katie probably already had a hard time getting their one year old twin girls and the two year old twin brothers that they had adopted after Fred and Angelina had passed away to bed. Plus, Katie is halfway through her second pregnancy. I can't in good conscience do anything to possibly cause a second bedtime for them tonight._

_Charlie and Kursten had a newborn at home just like Percy and Penelope do. I placed both of those couples in the no column of my mental check list. Neville and Luna are about to deliver their first daughter any day now, so they are also on the no list._

_I'm not close enough to any of the other curse breakers to ask them if I can borrow a couch tonight._

While I was thinking and going through a list of my friends, I walked through the village. It was so quiet and peaceful at night. When I got to the edge of Ottery St. Catchpole, I had made an unlikely decision._ I had only one option left to stay with a friend, Harry._

~*Fixing*~

I had been standing in the courtyard in front of Number 12 Grimmauld Place for approximately twenty minutes. It was getting close to eleven pm. I am tired, cold, angry, sad, and hungry all at the same time. _I'm too complex for Ron. I am not a teaspoon!_

Unfortunately, I just didn't have the courage to walk across the street, climb the front steps, and knock on the door. _What a Gryffindor I am!_

Just when I was about to leave and get a room at the Leaky Cauldron, the front door of Number 12 opened.

Harry Potter stood there with the light from the hallway outlining how thin he had become since the last time I had seen him. He stepped onto the top stair and called out to me. "Hermione Jean Granger, why are you standing out there shivering? Get your ass in this house right now. If you don't do it quickly, I will come out there and get you!"

Knowing that he would make good on his threat, I waited for a car to pass. Then, I sprint across the street. Running up the stairs, I ran straight into his arms that were open wide. He enveloped me in a calming hug. After keeping me close for a couple of minutes, Harry led me into his home.

"Hermione, why were you just standing out there for the past twenty minutes? Where were you for the hour before that?" Harry half questioned and half ranted at me again. He led me down the hall. Sirius, Tonks, and Remus waved to me from Sirius' portrait where his mother's used to be. I gave them a small wave back. Harry murmured to them not to be nice to me because I am in trouble. He escorted me down the stairs to the kitchen mumbling about me being stupid for standing out in the cold.

Once we were in the large, basement kitchen, he ordered me to sit at the table. He moved about the room making tea and muttering to under his breath like Kreacher used to do before he met Winky. It was almost funny to see Harry acting so at home in the kitchen.

Harry's hair was longer and shaggier than the last time I saw him. His clothes seemed to hang off of him because of the weight that he had lost that he could not afford to lose. The old Gryffindor quidditch tee he was wearing him, not the other way around. His denims were slung low on his hips, worn, and had several holes in them.

"How long did you know I was out there? How did you know I was out there? How did you know I was missing, even though I really wasn't, for the hour before that?" I asked in my own rant when he sat down at the table opposite me. "We haven't seen each other for almost two years. Why would anyone contact you to find me?"

"Everyone has been floo calling me and everyone else that has ever been in contact with you. Everyone else in the wizarding world is trying to find you. Aurors and several curse breakers are apparating from place to place trying to find you. I know for a fact that Kingsley even went to Malfoy Manor to make sure no one there lapsed." Harry waving his hands around like he always does when he is agitated. "Twenty minutes and many floo calls. Hermione, no matter what has happened the past two years, I still care a great deal for you. I may not have acted like it, but you are still my best friend. I have worried about you every day." Harry said as he placed his hands comfortingly over mine. Then, he reached his right hand up and wiped away a tear from my cheek. "You are exhausted. I should get you to a bed. We will save the deep, over-thinking discussions for tomorrow."

"Okay, I will feel so very much better after a night's sleep." I replied sarcastically as I tried to stifle a yawn.

"Now, you have your choice of any of the bedrooms. Well, you can't have the master, BuckBeak still lays claim to it. I swear that one of these days I will get him to sleep in the house that Hagrid made for him in the back garden." Harry said with a dry chuckle that made me smile.

"That sound is wonderful to hear." I said so low that I didn't think he heard me, but he did.

"You have no idea." Harry said chuckling again. "It's time to get you to bed. You are not to worry about a thing. Bill owled Gringotts and told them you are both doing some research from home tomorrow. Plus, I locked the Floo network and placed and anti-apparation charm here. You have from now until Monday morning to relax and maybe make a few decisions."

"Thanks, Harry." I said as I stood and walked my mug over to the sink. "I guess I better go find a room."

"Kreacher, Winky, and I have been really working this place over. I think you will find the best rooms are Sirius and Regulus' old rooms." Harry said following me up the stairs to the main hall.

"Oh, shit!" I exclaimed when we reached the main hall.

"What's wrong, Hermione?" Harry looked at me and all around frantically. He sank to the floor as I did with tears in his eyes. "Talk to me. I can't fight what I don't know!" He is still on high alert even three years after the war.

"It's over. The past almost ten years of my life have been some kind of cruel joke." I cried out as he pulled me into his arms. "Plus, I still have to keep his secret."

Harry just rocked me as he ran his fingers though my hair. "You are going to get though this, Hermione. You don't have to do anything for him ever again, if you don't want to."

"I have to go back to that house and pack all of my stuff tomorrow night." I said after several minutes of his soft murmuring and reassurances.

He pulled back from me slightly and ducked to look me in the eye. "If you want, I will go with you. If you don't want to go, I am sure Bill and Fleur will go over and pack for you."

"Does everyone know that he cheated on me? In the bed that my parents bought us when Muriel bought us the house?" I asked quietly.

"The git cheated on you? I'll kill him." Harry said with an iced fire in his green eyes.

"Obviously, you didn't know." I said trying to lighten our dismal moods again.

"No one told me, but I don't think anyone knows that happened." Harry said helping us both to our feet. "Ron isn't talking much and he took himself to St. Mungo's."

"Oops! Maybe that spell was a little too strong."

"I figured that was your handy work. Last I heard, he is still at hospital and the healers haven't been able to remove it yet." He said starting toward the next set of stairs. As we continued up to the bedrooms, he waved to the portraits. "Night, Sirius. Good night, Mum and Dad. Night, Ginny. Night, Remus and Tonks."

I could see the love and hurt in his eyes as he said good night to paintings instead of the actual people.

He startled me from my thoughts by asking me a surprise question. "Do you still scream at night?"

I made an attempt at sarcasm. "Doesn't everyone at this point?"

"Funny," Harry said as he nudged me with his shoulder. "Don't silence the room. It has been so long since someone else has been here that I don't want to forget someone else is here."

"If you are sure," I said skeptically. "I will warn you that Bill says I am progressively getting louder."

"I'm sure I can handle it." Harry said smirking before pulling me into a hug. "We will talk more about tomorrow."

"Night, Harry."

~*Fixing*~

I don't really remember walking into Regulus' room, changing into the sleep vest and shorts left over from my work trip in my extendable bag, or climbing into the bed. I don't remember my dreams, screaming until I woke Harry up, or Harry coming into the bedroom.

I do remember waking up with Harry's arms wrapped around me, seemingly protecting me from my dreams and my own personal bitch in the darkness. I was a little surprised realizing that Harry was not wearing a shirt or even a vest.

I tried slipping out of his arms to the washroom without him noticing or waking up. I slid a pillow in between our bodies and breathed a sigh of relief and did a quiet happy dance when I made it to the adjoining washroom.

After using the restroom, I stared at myself in the mirror. I looked horrible. My hair was a mess, so I pulled it back into a somewhat tamer bun. Now that I can see my full face, I realize my make-up is smeared and all over the place. I grab a washcloth and quickly scrub my face clean.

I still have red eyes with circles around them. I still have numbed, stoic facial expression. I am still the mousey, know-it-all, bookworm that I was when I was a student at Hogwarts. I am still a fool that is in love with Ronald Weasley.

I decided that I didn't want to keep analyzing myself and turned from the mirror to left the washroom. I crept back into the room and I laid down on the chaise lounge under the street facing bay window. I laid there and watched the sun make its daily journey through the sky.

When the sunlight finally touched my face, the weight and enormity of the past twelve hours hit me. I felt the tears beginning to stream down my face and I knew they would not be stopping anytime soon. I needed a hug. I needed Harry.

I called out to Harry and I heard him stir on the bed behind me.

"Hermione, where are you?" He asked in a raspy tone.

"Grab you glasses from the nightstand and I am on the chaise near the window." I answered through my tears.

He leaned me forward and sat down behind me. Pulling me back against his chest, in a voice filled with sleep, he said "I had no idea this thing was called a chaise."

Through my tears, I lightly asked, "Is that really the point right now, Harry?"

"No, but I am half asleep." He said like it made his random comment make sense. "Plus, I hate to see you cry, especially when I am one of the reasons."

"Why do you say that you are one of the reasons?"

"Because I know you, Hermione Jean Granger. You haven't cried since the end of the war. You have tried to be strong for everyone else while they fall apart. You stay strong for your friends and family, even when one or two of us have been nothing, but royal asses to you." Harry said wrapping his arms around my shoulders to ground me to him. "Hermione, I'm here with you. I am not going to push you away ever again. Let everything out. Then, Winky and I will make your favorite breakfast of porridge with peaches and honeycomb."

* * *

><p><em>I do make up different situations from J. K. Rowling's work, but I am not a fan of making up my own characters. Everyone in here is in her original books. The man with Ron was Kenneth Towler, a Gryffindor that was two years above the Golden Trio in school. Charlie's wife is Kursten Blijk, who was a German Quidditch Chaser.<em>

_I had to take my stories down from my old account, KaliMione77. This story used to be named "Changes Unknown". I think i will be posting every few days. I am rereading everything, fixing mistakes, and fleshing out the story._

_Let me know what you think! _~DuckiBelle


	2. Chapter 2

_This story is a repost from KaliMione77. It has been more fleshed out and updated._

_I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in the world that J. K. Rowling. I just enjoy messing with her characters a little!_

_Hermione thoughts are in Italics._

_The song lyrics for Atomic Kitten's __Bye Now__ are in _**Bold.**

I wiped the last tears from my eyes and stretched my arms toward the ceiling. I saw the light of the sun fading in the courtyard across from Number 12 Grimmauld Place. I don't remember most of the day. It was blurs of tears, Winky begging me to eat, and Harry holding me to keep me from falling apart beyond repair.

I don't even know why I was crying. Ron had betrayed me, but I don't think my heart is broken. I was mostly hurt by the lies and the loss of the past ten years of my dreams. I couldn't believe how stupid and gullible I had been for the past three years that I have been dating Ron. There had to have been sign after sign showing me that I was going down the wrong path. I let my guard down after the war and had gotten hurt three times because of it.

Harry squeezed me tighter from behind and breaking me from the rant inside my head. "Hermione, I haven't seen you scowled at me or say a word to me for five hours. Is that a new record for you?" He asked whispering in my ear.

My response was raspy from the racking sobs that had engulfed my body at various points throughout the day. "You should go back to being a supportive, silent, and strong back rest. You are not a good comedian."

"There is the Hermione wit and sarcasm I know and love." He said chuckling behind me. "Have you noticed the owl sitting on my knee yet?"

I looked toward his knee in surprise. I held my arm out and the gorgeous, snowy owl hopped onto my arm. "Hello, Beautiful. How are you, Weaselette? Do you have a letter for me?"

After she lightly nipped my finger, I turned my head to look at Harry. He looked like I felt; tired, beaten down, and emotionally drained. He tore his eyes away from the last present he had received from Ginny, his owl, to meet mine. "What?"

I shake my head and ask, "How long has she been here?"

He reached out and stroked Weaselette's wings as he answered. "She has only been here for about ten minutes, but she is very patient unlike her namesake. She would have waited another five minutes or so before she lightly pecked your hand."

"That is very considerate of her. I guess I should read my letter, huh?" I asked turning back to Weaselette. I stroked her feathers for a moment before looking for the address on the envelope. "Any clue who this is from?"

"I'm guessing it is from Bill… or Charlie… or Percy… or George." Harry said chuckling. "She will only deliver letters to and from them and you. I have a barred owl named Phin that does all of my other deliveries."

I leaned my head back on Harry, snuggling my head in the curve between his neck and shoulder. As I broke the seal and unrolled the parchment, I asked, "Is that her choice or yours?"

"Hers," he said with certainty. "That is most definitely her choice. I think she liked Ginny more or maybe Ginny just spoiled her more. She favorites the people Ginny used to favorite."

I laid there against him stunned. I couldn't believe that Harry was talking so openly about Ginny. He used to go ballistic every time anybody said her name around him.

"Don't be so shocked, Hermione. I'm not dancing in the street happy, but I am doing okay." Harry said surprising me even more. He gave a stressed sigh. "I meant what I said last night. I know that I shouldn't have pushed you away. I definitely should not have said the things that I said to you."

"Harry, you don't have to apologize. You were grieving. I don't blame you for anything." I said trying to stop him and to stop the tears from coming again.

He hugged me tighter and placed his chin on the top of my head. "What did I ever do to deserve a best friend like you?"

I smiled a sly, small smile. "Maybe the fates knew that you would need someone with actual intelligence to help you to defeat the Chief Death Eater or maybe just to make it through school."

"Really, Hermione?" Harry said tickling my sides. "I can't believe you said that."

"Well, it is the truth, isn't it?" I asked lightly giggling.

He found my most ticklish spot just to the left of my belly button causing me to almost explode with laughter. When he had stopped and I had calmed down, he said, "Just for that I won't let Winky bring us supper up here. You will have to walk all the way downstairs to the kitchen."

"That is not that big of a deal. I have a bruised heart and a banged up ego, not broken legs." I said starting to get up, but causing myself to wince.

"Hermione, you don't have to be so strong with me." Harry said reaching out and grabbing my arm. "You always do things you don't truly have to do. You hopped on a hippogriff to help rescue Sirius even though you are terrified of flying."

"You couldn't have gotten him onto Buckbeak by yourself." I said quietly. "Besides, I don't know how else to be."

"Herm…" Harry started.

I sighed and interrupted him. I could not get into this argument right now. I do not have the strength. "I have to go to the washroom. I will read that letter later."

"Are you sure?"

I chuckled lightly despite how I was actually feeling. "I am sure, Harry. I feel disgusting. I haven't had a shower since I was in Egypt yesterday morning. I'll meet you down in the kitchen in about a half hour." I answered as I got up. I winced when my leg and back muscles twitched and tingled as I stumbled across to the washroom door.

He nodded his head from the chaise like he didn't believe my flimsy excuse to be alone. He swung his legs to the floor and slowly exited the room giving me time to change my mind.

_He can still read me like nobody else in the world._

As I sat on the edge of the tub watching it filled with raspberry scented water from the tap, I remembered how it had taken both Ginny and myself to convince Harry to add the multi-scented taps. That had amazed me because I know how much he had loved the scented taps in the prefect and captains washroom at Hogwarts.

I hissed as I gently lowered myself into the almost full tub. My body was sore from the past two weeks of hard work in Egypt, my infuriated anger, and the sobs that had wreaked havoc on my body for the better part of the day.

I fully submerged my body in the healing water and let out a long sigh of relief as I reemerged. I reveled in the gentle scent as it eased the tension from my shoulders, back, and legs.

To aid in my relaxation, I grabbed my wand that I had placed on a towel beside the tub and waved it at the wireless in the upper shelf opposite of the sink and mirror. I smiled as Westlife's version of Uptown Girl filled the room. I always loved this song while growing up and I love the slight rock tones of this new version. As the song ended, I slipped under the surface of the water again.

As my ears broke went above the water, tears began to form in my eyes. The haunting lyrics to Atomic Kitten's Bye Now were a bit too close to home.

**Bye now, take this love away from me  
>Bye now, set my soul and spirit free<br>Bye now, take this love away from me  
>Bye now, let me be what I can be<strong>

**Go make it easy on yourself **

"HARRY!" I cried in a vain hope that he could hear me.

**Lately in my life I'm  
>Finding I struggle if I<br>picture myself no longer  
>Underneath your spell<br>**

I dropped my wand in the water with a small splash. I pulled me legs close to my chest. I wrapped my arms around my legs so I was in a tight ball with only my face above the water.

**Bye now, take this love away from me  
>Bye now, set my soul and spirit free<br>Bye now, take this love away from me  
>Bye now, let me be what I can be<strong> 

"HARRY! I need you! Please!" I screamed again at the top of my lungs. My foot slipped on my wand and I slid under the water. I surfaced to hear the next few lines.

**Go and just leave me  
>Go make it easy on yourself<strong>

**I can't stand to see you  
>Couldn't bare to feel you<br>Its tearing my heart  
>Its only to<strong>

"HARRY!"

As I finished screaming his name for the third time, he burst into the washroom with his wand drawn. He had not been in a fight for a few years, but he was ready for one even in his pajamas. "Hermione, what's wrong? What's attacking you?"

"Turn it off, please. Turn it off." I sobbed from the water. "Harry, turn off the wireless."

He quickly did as I asked. Turning back to me, he quickly realized where I was and that I was naked and looked toward the ceiling. He started to move toward the door as he said, "Hermione, I'll just step outside. Right?"

I sniffed a couple times before I answered. "I'll be fine in a few moments. You can go downstairs."

"Are you sure?" He asked as he stood at the door still staring at the ceiling. "I can wait right out here and give you a giant hug or a shoulder to cry on when you are clothed."

I did a chuckle and sniff combined. "I will see you in the kitchen, Harry. It was just a stupid song that spooked me. I am fine now that it is over."

"I thought 'I am fine' was my line." He said with a slight smile just before closing the door. "Bring the letter downstairs. I have a gut feeling that I don't want you to read that by yourself."

~*Fixing the Past and Present*~

Twenty minutes later, I was walking past the portraits of my friends that had been lost in the war. Most of them gave me sympathetic smiles because of the tear tracks running down her face. Ginny placed her hand open against the canvas of hers. I placed my hand against hers.

"Ginny, I miss you so much." I said softly as tears began to fall again.

"I know you do, Mione." Ginny said with a small laugh. "You have a portrait of me at your house. Well, I guess it isn't your house anymore."

"Thanks, Ginerva." I scoffed starting to move on again. "I really appreciate the brutal honesty."

"Sorry," the red head backtracked quickly. "Hermione, you know that is not what I meant. I mean I figured you wouldn't want to go back there ever again. Let alone call that house home. Right?"

"That is true." I answered sitting down on the stair and leaning against the railing. After sitting in silence for a moment, I looked up at her through my lashes. "Did you know? About Ron and…"

"NO! No! Bloody hell, I had no clue what was happening with him until you went to Egypt this last time." Ginny reassured me quickly. "I found out the second night you were gone and they snogged in front of my portrait. I started screaming at him, but he just silenced me and went upstairs."

"Oh, Ginny. I am sorry you had to see your brother snogging someone. That could not have been pretty." I said feeling pity for Ginny. "I always made sure you didn't have to see us. I certainly didn't enjoy watching you and Harry. Hell, I hated watching Ron and Lavender in more ways than one."

"I know and I appreciate that." Ginny said with a smile. "I hope he was planning on being alone when you came home and to tell you. Even if he wasn't planning on telling you, I would have told you. Please, believe me."

"I believe you. I just wonder how long I have been such a bloody, stupid bint. I cannot believe I did not see what was happening in my own relationship." I said with angry tears starting to form in my eyes. "I was just so oblivious to everything that he was doing."

"Hermione, you can't think like that. Ron is the idiot and arse, not you." Ginny said trying to flame my anger. "The only thing you did wrong was trust what everyone else was saying and not trust your gut. You told me that you had questions about yours and Ron's relationship after your first Christmas together."

"I know."

"He got you a quidditch jersey for Christmas." Ginny rolled her eyes. "That told everyone something. Unfortunately, I was the only one to see that it meant he does not understand you not that he wants you to get excited about his favorite sport."

"He is such an arse, but that doesn't stop me from feeling like I am as stupid as a slug!" I growled back at her. "Everyone is probably gathered at the Burrow laughing at me."

"Stop it right now, Hermione!" Ginny shouted back at me. "You will not do this to yourself! You will not let him make you doubt yourself and your abilities!"

Harry burst through the kitchen door after hearing us shouting down in the kitchen. He saw me sitting on the stairs crying with Ginny above me still red in the face from her temper flaring. "What is going on? Why are you sitting on the stairs crying, Hermione? Why are you yelling at her, Ginny?"

"The brightest witch of her age and almost any other is beating herself up over my brother being a bloody arse." Ginny sarcastically explained to Harry. "She is starting to think this whole situation is of her own making."

"Gin, yelling at her isn't going to help. You made her cry." Harry said whining at Ginny. "Hermione needs understanding from us and not you yelling at her."

I stuck my tongue out at Ginny behind Harry's back.

"See, she is angry. The little bint just stuck her tongue out at me. She needs to be angry to get past this." Ginny said trying to explain to Harry what needs to happen. "Now that she is angry, she needs to get pissed at the right person."

"Let me handle her, Ginny. I am the one that got her through Ron and Lavender, remember?" Harry turned to me and laughed. "Sticking your tongue out at people or portraits is not very mature, Hermione. Now, can we go eat something?"

"Sure, but I don't think I will be much company." I answered dryly.

~*Fixing the Past and Present*~

We didn't talk much to each other as we sat in the homey, basement kitchen. Harry kept opening his mouth to speak, but closed it again and again.

I did talk a great deal to Winky much to Harry's amusement and annoyance. "Winky, are you sure you should be doing all of this cooking and cleaning?" I asked her truly worried about her and her pregnancy.

"I's be take easy. Kreacher and I's work to help Master Harry." The small, house-elf replied. "I dos only cooking the meals. Master Harry say no more work for me. He say that order till baby three months old."

"That sounds like a great plan, Winky. Harry knows that you love to work, but you need to make sure you take care of that baby you are going to have soon." I said trying to make sure I didn't upset her and cause stress on the baby.

"Missus Hermione, I is careful of baby. She is name Dobbette." Winky said proudly and sadly at the same time. "Master Harry say he wills give Dobbette work when she is of age. She will be charge of owls, Crooky, ands BuckBeak."

I leaned down close to the small elf. "That is very nice of him. I truly hope Dobbette loves animals. Please, let me know if I can help when she comes along."

I looked up to see Harry smiling at me. Beyond him, I saw Kreacher standing on the bottom stair not looking as amused at my offer of help, but he soon turned his face to Winky with love. Focusing back on Harry, I noticed the look of pride in him for the progress he had made with his two, soon to be three, house-elves.

"Kreacher, are you ready for Dobbette to come? She is going to be such a special little elf." I said catching his attention. "I am very excited that I might be here when she comes."

"We is happy, Missus." Kreacher barely said before Harry interrupted.

"What do you mean you MIGHT be here when Dobbette arrives?" Harry asked with a shocked and aggravated tone to his voice. The two elves slowly backed away.

"Yes, might. I might be here when the baby arrives." I answered by surprised by how shocked he sounded. "I cannot stay here forever. I am going to take a couple of days to pull myself together. Then, I will be able to move on with my life."

Harry slammed his hands on the table as he stood up from it. "Hermione, you are so aggravating sometimes. You take everything in. You take all the crap from everyone, from getting all of us to finish our homework to the crap Ron and I put you through in that tent. I wish you would just let it all go. I wish that you would let go and let someone else take care of you for more than five minutes."

"I…"

"No! You won't interrupt me. You have been this way since the day you and I became friends." Harry ranted. "You barely cried at any of the funerals. You stood up and praised our friends that died and shed a tear or two for each. You felt that you had to stay strong for everyone else. We were trapped in a tent for eight months and you only let your guard down when you had worn the locket for six extra hours so I could sleep longer after Ron left us. I had to fight you to get the cursed locket off of you. That is when you finally let loose and kicked the craziness out of your mind by dancing with me. I demand that you some time. You are going to call in sick to work for a few days or a week. You are going to stay here for a while, a long while. Also, you are going to not fight me on this."

_I hate that he knows me so well._ I cross my arms across my chest and huff not knowing how to respond. _I can't stand to be near him right now._ I stare at the opposite wall for a moment or two until he sat down, huffing himself. Then, I bolt for the door as he covers his face with his hands.

I heard Harry banging around in the kitchen, cleaning the dishes and putting away the leftover food. The banging stopped and Harry appeared at the top of the stairs doorway. He started up the stairs and found me sitting on the stairs in front of Remus and Tonks' portrait. "Are you going to go upstairs to bed?"

"No." I answered. "I want to leave, but I can't go anywhere safely. My wand is still too wet."

"So, why not go up to bed? We can take a walk or go to an out of the way place tomorrow."

"No."

"Why not?" Harry asked sinking onto the stair a couple below me.

"I just want to sit here for a while."

"I understand that." He answered laying his head on my lap. "I do this from time to time."

Tonks snorted. "He does it almost every day, sometimes even twice a day."

"Quiet, Nymph." Harry retorted. Tonks wriggled her nose at Harry causing him to chuckle.

We were quiet for several minutes staring at the different portraits lining the hall and stairs.

"I need to know if you can forgive me." I said quietly hoping that he heard me and would not make me repeat it.

Harry stared at me for a full minute. I thought I had my answer. I started to get up to pack my things and leave even after his proclamation a few minutes ago. He grabbed my arm and gently pulled me back down.

"You took so long to get here because you were deciding on where to go." Harry said in a dead voice after clearing his throat.

I bit my lip and looked up the stairs in response to his words and his tone of voice. I hated that voice, but for the past two years it had clearly and eerily become his normal tone.

He gently placed his fingers under my chin and turned my head to look at him. In the same dead tone, he said, "Hermione, I was really and truly a stupid git. I shouldn't have pushed you away. Everyone, with the exception of Ron, told me how stupid I was being, but I couldn't see it. At that time, I just didn't know how to deal with one more death."

I opened my mouth to speak, but Harry moved his finger and placed it on my lips.

"When I realized how far I had pushed my friends, especially you, away…"

"Harry, you don't have to do this." I said pulling my head away from his finger. "You don't have to relive it. I shouldn't have asked."

"No, you should not have had to ask. Yes, I do have to do this. You will listen to me." Harry said as he increased the amount of strength and passion in his voice. Once I settled back against the railing, he continued, "I went to talk to Minerva about six months ago. She really is an amazing woman. Even though she is headmistress of Hogwarts, she has still taken the time to help me. She has helped me deal with the death, well, all the deaths really. She, also, made me realize that I have been placing the blame in all the wrong places."

I interrupted him with a small, soft voice. "Harry…"

"Hermione, what I am trying to say is I don't have to forgive you. I don't blame you anymore and I never should have. I shouldn't have blamed you for you and Ginny's capture. You ladies were out doing what ladies do, shopping. Neither of you could have foreseen any of the horrible things that happened because you walked into Madame Malkin's. All the blame for Ginny being captured, tortured, and killed rests completely on the Death Eaters lying in their graves."

My mind flitted back to that day, May 1st in 1999.

"_Hermione, hurry up! Harry is going to be at Grimmauld Place in three hours." Ginny shouted up the Burrow stairs to me. "I want to have everything for my surprise ready before then."_

_I ran down the stairs and she whisked me out of the door before I could even say goodbye to anyone. At the end of the long lane, Ginny apparated us to the Leaky Cauldron._

"_First, we are going to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. George is holding a few party supplies for me." Ginny started going over her mental list._

"_I thought you were going to tell him about the baby privately." I said as we stepped out into the bright sunlight and bustle of Diagon Alley._

"_I am telling him privately." Ginny said with a sly smile. "Fred was always a horny bugger. He created several intimate party favors."_

"_You can stop talking now, Ginny. I really don't want to know anymore." I said giggling and skirting us around a group of men. "After seeing George, we…"_

"_We go pick up my robes that Madame Malkin is altering for the memorial tomorrow night. Then, we are going to pick up food and drinks from The Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade. Rosmerta said she would make Harry's favorite meal from there."_

"_Did you tell her what the dinner was for?" I asked a little worried. "If you told her, the entire world knows. Then, we would have wasted a lot of time going from place to place to arrange this surprise. The healer said you should limit your apparating in the first few months."_

"_She thinks that I am just trying to have a quiet night for him before the one year anniversary of the Hogwart's Battle. I'm safe, I think." Ginny answered dragging Hermione into the joke shop._

_Katie Weasley handed Ginny the two full bags of toys because George couldn't bring himself to give his baby sister things to help her enhance sex life. Both of us rubbed Katie's small baby bump before we left the shop to walk across the road and a couple of shops down._

_We walk into the robe shop to see Madame Malkin sitting immobile in a dressing room chair. Then, we saw the six or seven wands pointing at our chests before everything went bright red before quickly switched to black._

_The next thing I willingly remembered was Kingsley Shacklebolt breaking the chains that were holding my wrist to the wall._

"_Hermione, I have you. You don't have to worry about those men anymore." He said as he picked me up and cradled me to his chest. "You are safe now. I have you."_

_He pushed my face into his chest as he carried me down a long, dirt passage way and into the gleaming sun. Once we were out of the passage way, the majority of the Weasley family was surrounding us._

_Molly was crying, "Hermione, you're safe. You're safe."_

_Bill, Charlie, and George all tried to rip me out of Kingsley's arms, but he held me fast. "She needs to stay with me. I know you hate this, but she needs to go with me."_

_Bill kissed my forehead before Kingsley carried me over to a healer that made sure it was safe for me to apparate._

_Just before Kingsley and I left the field next to the manor, I heard a sound I knew all too well. It was the sound of Harry Potter screaming in emotional pain._

Harry seemed to notice that I had mentally left Grimmauld Place. He had pulled me down into his lap and was holding me tightly. When he realized I was back, he squeezed me tighter for a second before saying, "Do you need to go to the washroom again?"

I shook my head no against his chest.

Under his breath, he said, "Lucky you. I normally have to run to get sick after visiting that place in my mind."

In a small voice, I said, "You saw more than I did. You always saw more than I did."

He pulled my face gently away from his chest. "I know I always win at the who has more gross and tragic memories contest." He said trying for a twisted humor. Then, he wiped one of my last tears off of my cheek. "Hermione, can you ever forgive me for the way I treated you?"

_Author's Note~_

_I know this took longer than necessary, but delays happen after car accidents. I am on the mend now! (No more sling for my dislocated shoulder and I only have the eye-patch on for another week.)_

_I should be posting a little faster from now on._

_~DuckiBelle_


	3. Chapter 3

_Hermione thoughts and memories are in Italics. This chapter has lots of italics._

"How many times do we have to keep asking each other for forgiveness?" I said in a serious, but tearful voice still sitting across his lap on the stairs. "We really can be idiots sometimes."

Harry attempted to put an offended expression on his face, but failed miserably. "Whatever do you mean, Hermione? I happen to have gotten 5 N.E.W.T.'s! Not to mention, I used to teach you Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Both with my help..." I whispered under my breath.

"Excuse me?" Harry said with sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"Not this again!" Sirius said rolling his eyes and leaving Remus and Tonks' portrait for his own.

Tonks walked to the next frame and put her arm around Ginny. As Fred mimed playing a violin and humming from his and Angela's portrait, Tonks and Ginny started mocking us.

Ginny whined. "Oh, Hermione, please forgive me?'

"No, Harry. I need you to forgive me." Tonks answered.

"I was wrong. I don't need to forgive you. You need to forgive me." Ginny pleaded dropping to her knees. "You are the smartest witch the wizarding world will ever know!"

Tonks answered trying to pull Ginny up from her knees through a fit of giggles. "No, Harry. You are the wizarding world's hero. I need you to forgive me. Please!"

Harry and I had tried to keep straight faces. These two funky witches knew that the best thing for us to do right then was to laugh at ourselves.

We were able to keep our faces mostly stoic until Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody yelled from his portrait on the next landing up. "Would you all shut it? Or you could, at least, paint me a glass and a full bottle of fire whiskey if you insist on continuing?" Moody's gruff voice said. His wooden leg clunked against the ground as he paced. "All Sirius gave me is a mug of this lukewarm, garbage tea."

The entire house was silent for a beat and then, it erupted in laughter. Every painting up and down the hallway and stairwell seemed to be laughing. Sirius, James, and Remus were actually leaning on one another to stay upright.

As Harry's laughtersubsided, he gasped. "I knew there was something strange about Moody's painting when Sirius showed it to me during Christmas break in fifth year."

"So that is what you did when the rest of us were out risking our necks against the Dark Lord." Snape said sneering at Sirius.

Tonks glossed over Snape's comment and a bit sheepishly said, "Alastor's drink was my fault. Sirius' asked me to confirm Moody's favorite drink was right after we had arrived from our long broom ride to pick up Harry. I was pissed, cold, and sore from all of the back tracks, sidetracks, and loops old Mad-Eye forced us to make. So, I told Sirius that the old goat's favorite drink was English breakfast tea!"

Moody's growl echoed through the hall. "Nymphadora Tonks, I may never forgive you for this!"

As Tonks clumsily flitted to Moody's frame, I turned to Harry. "Should we leave the portraits to their bickering?"

Harry hugged me tightly and whispered in my ear. "That sounds like a bloody brilliant idea. You have no idea how many of these bickering I have been a witness to." Then, he lifted me off his lap and up into his arms before standing up.

"HARRY!" Ginny and I yelled at the same time as he adjusted me more securely in his arms.

"What?"

"Put me down!" I said trying to wiggle out of his arms. "I can walk up the stairs myself."

Harry's arms firmly held me still. "Stop wiggling or the two of us will go toppling down the stairs."

I stilled as Ginny, Lily, and Tonks laughed at the two of us.

"Leave the boy alone, ladies." James said piping up to defend his son's chivalry.

Harry started climbing the stairs and replied, "Thanks, but we have talked about this boy thing, Dad. Good night to the rest of you."

I looked over his shoulder to see the three Marauder men trying to silently laugh at us. I grinned right along with them. When we past the ladies, I waved goodnight before sticking my tongue out at Ginny and Tonks.

Harry ignored the portrayed women's renewed protests, the laughter of the men, and continued to climb up the stairs. He stopped on the landing that both Sirius and Regulus' bedroom doors were on. After gently placing my feet on the floor, he offered me a choice. "Hermione, pick a room. I don't feel like waking up in the middle of the night and running across the hall again tonight."

I raised my eyebrows at his assuming statement.

He raised his eyebrows back at me. "Can you guarantee that you won't start screaming in the middle of the night again?"

I hung my head and trudged toward Sirius' room. I knew that Sirius' bed is bigger than his little brother's. Plus, I had always loved the garden view out of Sirius' bedroom windows.

I sat on the bed and stretch my arms high above my head. Harry grunted quietly behind me.

"What was that for?"

"If you keep stretching like that, I might forget that I am a gentleman and remember that I have not had sex in over two years."

I chuckled lightly remembering about constantly stopping Ginny from being entirely too descriptive when describing what she and Harry had done behind closed doors. "Let's not think about that because the last time I had sex was almost year ago, the night I got engaged. It wasn't even very good. I had to give myself an orgasm."

"That is a bit too much information, Hermione."Harry said wrinkling up his nose.

I lay back on the pillows and chuckled. "If you think that is too much information, you do not want to know what Fleur, Kate, Kurtsen, Molly, and I know about the sex you and Ginny used to have. I have to admit listening about you and Ginny was better than her and Dean because that guy had some serious kink in his head."

"Hermione, those are things that I tried to remain blissfully unaware of."

I shrugged my shoulders just before Harry hit me with his pillow. "Budge over. I need my space too, woman."

Then, he went into the bathroom for a moment while I moved over on the bed and got comfortable. He joined me in the bed and kissed me on the forehead. "Hermione, I hope you can sleep tonight. If you need anything, please wake me."

I nodded. He smiled at me and was asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

~*Fixing the Past and Present*~

I can't sleep. I have been sitting up against the headboard of the bed in Sirius' old room for hours. The mattress is wonderfully comfortable with just the right amount of firmness. But I still can't sleep!

I looked over at Harry lying on the king sized, four poster bed next to me in the darkness that was barely penetrated by the moonlight. _He can sleep. He eyes are closed and he is slightly snoring. He can sleep. Granted he does have the smell of a dreamless sleep draught on his breath, but he can sleep._

I huffed quietly and scooted down to lay on the bed for the hundredth time since Harry and I had decided it was time to go to bed. I wiggled a little to get more comfortable in the grey boxers with Snitches on them and black vest that I had borrowed from Harry. I will be happy to have my own clothes back in the morning after Winky and I finished emptying and washing everything out of my extendable bag. I would really like my clothes that I had left at the house in Ottery St. Catchpole as well.

I tossed a little trying to get in the most comfortable position, so maybe I would get to be so comfortable my brain would shut off. It wouldn't.

I wiggled for a few more minutes futilely trying again to find the most comfortable position before Harry's right arm shot out and wrapped firmly around my waist. He was still asleep, but it seemed his unconscious mind was paying attention to me. It seemed he wanted me to stop moving.

I huffed, frustrated at myself and my brain.

Harry pulled me tighter against him as he shifted to lie on his side. He mumbled something incoherently into my hair as I was moved so my back was flush against the hard planes of his uncovered chest. His left arm made its way under my neck to act as a pillow. His right leg slipped in between my own legs and wrapped around my left leg.

Being so entangled together, I could feel his heartbeat pulsing against my back, his warm breath on my neck, and the softness of his flannel sleep pants nestled between my thighs. I matched my breathing to his breath that was warming my neck. Then, I began to settle my racing heart to match his calm one beating against my back. Being so wrapped up in his warmth, I drift off into an uneasy sleep full of angry and harsh words directed at me.

~*Fixing the Past and Present*~

"Hermione, wake up. You're dreaming." I heard Harry's voice say from above me breaking into my rough dreams. "Wake up, please. You are safe. You are safe here with me."

I opened my eyes to him holding me even tighter than when I had fallen asleep. I could feel the tears falling from my eyes onto his arm and the pillow that were cushioning my head.

Harry lifted his right hand from where it had slipped under the shirt I was wearing at my waist to wipe the tears from my face. "You're safe with me, Hermione. You don't have to worry about your dreams coming true or them coming back to inflict injury again."

I tried to take a deep breath as his arm settled around my waist again. "They hate me. They all hate me."

"No, they don't…" Harry responded trying to reassure me.

"You don't know… you didn't see…Molly is livid and… she is ranting at everyone…" I said breaking each incoherent sentence with a sob.

Harry disentangled his leg from mine and then, turned me in his arms.

I buried my face in his hard, bare chest as his arms tightened again.

"I don't understand you. What don't I see? Do you think the Molly is ranting at the healers or at Ron?"

I shook my head and brought my hand up to wipe the fresh tears from my eyes. Then, I toyed with one or two of the sparse hairs on his chest as I quietly said. "Molly is livid at me. She is ranting at everyone because you made it so she can't get me."

"Hermione, you have never been accused of having an overactive imagination. Don't start now."

I pushed away from him and sat up a little too quickly. Harry's hand shot out and caught my neck and then, slid it to my shoulder trying to steady me from falling off the bed and onto the hardwood floor.

I shoved his hand off of me as I forcefully said, "I am not imagining this, Harry. That is what Bill said is happening."

"How? What? Why?" Harry stuttered. "Did you floo call Bill after I went to sleep?"

I shook my head no.

"Be glad I can see you in this minimal moonlight." Harry teasingly chastised. "So, how did Bill let you know?"

"I read his letter. " I said in barely a whisper.

His hand brushed past my arm and then, grasped it on the way back to his side. "Hermione, let me see that letter."

~*Fixing the Past and Present*~

Harry was pacing nervously from one end of the parlor to the other in front of the couch I was curled up on. We are both still in our pajamas, but I am glad that Harry put a shirt on.

I had stopped following him with my eyes twenty minutes ago. "Harry, would you please sit down?"

He just paused for a moment to glare at me and then, continued with his pacing. As he paced, Harry mumbled random words from Bill's letter.

_**How could you be so cold?**_

_**What could Ron have ever done to deserve being hexed like that?**_

_**He won't let any of us in to see him.**_

_**Why can't we get into Grimmauld Place?**_

_**It took the healers twelve hours to reverse the hex you placed on him.**_

_**Mum is livid that she can't see her baby boy.**_

_**Fleur is trying to give you the benefit of the doubt.**_

_**George had to rush Katie to St. Mungo's when she found out you were missing.**_

_**Bogrod has been trying to get you by owl post.**_

_**The healers had to give Mum a calming draught because she was ranting so loudly.**_

_**WHAT IN THE BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON?**_

"Harry, everything will be fine once Bill and Fleur arrive." I said in a huff. "I just have to explain what happened, even if Ron refuses to."

"You shouldn't have to explain." Harry snarled. "He should have to explain all of the past three, or more accurately, the last ten years to his family. He should stop hiding behind stronger people and be the man he always dreamed and fantasized of being."

"Why don't you tell me how you really feel?" I asked sarcastically trying to break through his anger.

"Funny, Hermione." Harry answered back. "You know what I mean. You and I have always had to do the dirty work. He needs to do his own this time!"

"I should keep my mouth shut?" I asked incredulously. "Should I let the Weasley family, who has been a second family to me, continue to hate me until he decides to step up and be the man I thought he was?"

Harry quickly stopped his pacing in the middle of my second question and came to kneel in front of me. "Hermione, you have been telling me since fifth year that I have this saving people, hero complex."

"So? You do have a saving people, hero complex which many people have tried and succeeded at exploiting over the years." I interjected not liking where I think this conversation is headed.

"I am not the only one being exploited." Harry said with a smirk at the fact that he was using my own word against me. "Think about this from an outsider's perspective, Ron has been exploiting you since first year. He has copied your notes in school. He ate and then, complained about the food you made us while on the run. He tried to claim your DA idea in fifth year. He used you to get rid of Lavender in sixth year and then, he ignored you."

"I knew there was something else behind Hermione turning on Ron!" Bill's angry voice seethed from the fireplace. "She has decided to come play house with Harry!"

"Bill, you promise you will listen." Fleur chastised her husband. "You work closely with her. You are her friend. You love her like a sister! Give her a chance!"

"She shouldn't have to explain anything. Explaining what happen should be Ron's responsibility." Harry spat still crouching before me.

"Harry, snapping at Bill is not worth it." I said ruffling his already mussed and messy hair. "Obviously, he does not know everything that is going on."

"I don't know what exactly is going on either, but I know you wouldn't do anything to anyone especially someone you love without just cause." Harry said in a slightly confused, but truthful tone.

Bill broke into our small conversation. "You are defending her without even know why she put such a strong bat bogey hex on Ron that it took several healers twelve hours to refuse it. I thought Ron was your best mate."

Ginny piped up from one of the portraits the hallway occupants had crowded into. "Good job, Hermione. My strongest took only two healers nine hours to correct."

Bill turned on his baby sister. "Ginny, I cannot believe you are congratulating her on hexing your brother. You are choosing her over your family."

"Bill, you may be the oldest, but you definitely aren't the smartest Weasley kid." Ginny scoffed back. "Of course, there has been a rush for last place in that race lately."

"Gin…" I started jumping up from the couch to interrupt the developing family squabble. "Ginny, please don't continue. If Bill wants to be mad at me, I say let him. It seems that Ron cannot handle it at this point."

She interrupted me back and glared at me. "Hermione, I agree with Harry. You are not going to fight Ron's battles for him anymore." Then, she turned to her favorite brother and her sister-in-law. "Bill, Fleur, there is something you don't know about Ron."

I knew she couldn't say the full truth. With a flick of her wand, Ginny was silenced. I shouted, "Ginerva, you can't tell them."

"Ron cheated on Hermione and she caught him in their bed." Fred said ignoring what I had said to his sister. He was jumping behind others and weaving around to keep me from aiming a spell at him. "He has been cheating on her for years. He is pissed off and pouting that he did not get his lover out of the house before Hermione got home from her work trip. There is more to tell, but Ron needs to be the only one to tell you. That is the only way he will be able to move on and be productive in his life."

Bill sat down on the floor right where he had been standing. He looked in complete shock. He ran his hand through his hair and practically ripped off his traveling cloak.

Harry looked between Bill on the floor and me standing at the couch. In his dead tone, he asked, "There's more? Just how much more is there?"

_Author"s Note~_

_I couldn't figure out how to do a plain letter from Bill with my style. I hope you liked the way I did put it in._

_~DuckiBelle_


	4. Chapter 4

_Hermione thoughts and memory dreams are in Italics. This chapter describes Hermione dreaming about being held in captivity and what happened immediately afterwards. Warning this chapter does loosely describe Hermione being sexually tortured._

Harry and I didn't crawl back into bed until almost 4 in the morning. Bill floo called the rest of his siblings to hear things straight from me. After they crawled out of the floo, they asked question after question trying to get me reveal the person Ron was having an affair with. I stood my ground and was going to force Ron to stand his.

Harry did not even have the energy to take his dreamless sleep draught. We both fell asleep as soon as our heads hit our pillows.

_Twist._

_Twist._

_Toss the dirt._

_Twist._

_Twist._

_Toss the dirt._

_Twist._

_Twist._

_Slice._

"_Ouch!"_

_Drip._

_Drip._

_Twist._

_Drip._

_Twist._

_Twist._

"_Hermione, are you okay?" Ginny's weak voice asked through the small openings in each of our cell doors._

"_I'm fine, Ginny." I said putting as much strength in my voice that I could spare. I placed my left uninjured hand as flat as possible against the rough texture of the rough texture of the mud, clay, and rock dungeons wall. "I just whacked my head as I sat up in the bed alcove again. It's nothing."_

"_Oh!" Ginny said in a barely audible, breathy whisper._

"_Ginny, you need to get some rest. Get some while you can." I encouraged her. I sat still crossed-legged on the dirt floor with my hand against the wall waiting to hear her move. When I heard the cotton fabric of her now tattered, baby blue summer dress rustle, I added, "I will try to wake you in a half hour. They shouldn't be back for another fifteen after that."_

_Twist._

_Twist._

_Toss the dirt._

_Twist._

_Twist._

_Toss the dirt._

_Twist._

_Twist._

_My body seemed to still itself when I heard keys jangling in the lock of the door that concealed the dungeon corridor. "Ginny, something must be going on. They are here already." I whisper yelled at the woman I considered my sister._

_I hid the corkscrew earring behind a couple of rocks in the wall. A few days after we had arrived and I had recovered from my first beating, I had found that a few of the rocks on the walls between our cells were loose. I pried them away from the wall and discovered that the beginnings of a tunnel had been dug out behind them. _

_After replacing the rocks, I moved into the waiting position on my knees, so my head would be at their crouch level. I heard Ginny quickly slide off her bed, shuck her dress, and sit in the middle of the room like we had been painfully taught when we had arrived._

_My door was opened first like always since it was closest to the hallway door._

"_Look at the little mudblood bitch." One of our captures said as the approached close enough for me to see his feet with my lowered eyes. I heard the door open to Ginny's cell next door. "She looks so pretty dressed just for us."_

"_Precisely, she is dressed in what her blood contains, mud, dirt, and clay." The other answered._

_I knew Mr. Parkinson had said the first comment, but the other voice sounded a bit different. It sounded like Ludo Bagman, but slightly off normal._

_Ludo spoke again. "What are Shunpike and Thicknesse doing next door?"_

"_Why are you asking so many questions today?" Mr. Parkinson demanded of the former beater. "You know that they are taking turns stuffing and fucking Harry Potter's blood traitor bitch next door. I am still unsure why, but you played with her just two days ago. Personally, I don't think her heart is in her work like this one's is."_

"_I remember, but she seemed a bit off at the time. I assumed she would be removed from the rotation." Ludo answered somewhat disjointedly._

"_The blood traitor was just messing with your head. She loves spreading her legs." Mr. Parkinson laughed. "Maybe she just didn't like your dick which seems weird since she could stand Potter's. Maybe she is still used to his tiny penis and not used to a larger than average size."_

"_To right you are." Ludo laughed back half-heartedly. As Ludo's feet started to head toward the door, he said, "Well, I will step out and let you get to it, Parkinson."_

_At the sound of his retreating feet, I began shaking. I had never been left alone with one Death Eater before. I was terrified that this could be the end for me._

_As Mr. Parkinson unzipped his trousers to release his small and wrinkled appendage, he said, "Why are you leaving? You know this dirty bitch likes to be watched. Look. She is shaking because she is afraid you will miss a great show."_

_Ludo stopped and came back toward the center of the room and my body stopped shaking. "Well, have at her. I want to try something new on my go."_

_Knowing what Mr. Parkinson demanded that I do, I wrapped my lips around his pinkie sized, semi-soft member and began sucking. I hoped he thought I was choking on his non-impressive size and not because I was revolted by him._

_My mind drifted as it always did when I was servicing one of the Death Eaters. I went through the motions, but in the back of my mind I knew things felt different this time._

_Before he came, he pulled his dick out of my mouth and dragged me by my hair to the chains attached to the wall. I felt the now familiar click of the chains being fastened to my wrists and ankles to lift me slightly off the floor. I again barely felt him inside me, but I still made the appreciative sounds that I knew would get him finished quickly._

_Ludo and I both jerked our heads toward the door at the same time when the sound of someone violently vomiting was closely followed by a loud gurgling, ripping sound in the next room. I knew Ginny had been feeling poorly because of her pregnancy, but she was usually able to stop herself from puking on the Death Eaters._

_I had only a small idea what the ripping sound was and I hoped that I was wrong._

_Mr. Parkinson slowly withdrew his miniscule penis from me and swore loudly. "Those fucking arseholes! They were supposed to wait until Potter gave us the ransom to kill her." He quickly stuck himself into his pants and trousers._

_Before he could turn around, Ludo punched him in the back of the head. Mr. Parkinson fell against me and slide down my body as the light left his eyes._

_I heard Stan Shunpike and Pius Thicknesse running toward my dungeon cell at the sound of Parkinson's body slamming me into the wall. I was not sure why, but Ludo spun and stunned them as they burst through the metal cell door._

_Spinning back to me, he said, "Hermione, I will be right back for you." Then, he ran from the room. I heard him scurry next door and gasp._

_While I was alone, I attempted to yank the chains holding me up out of the wall. I stopped when I saw a patronus flash across the open door. I heard the main dungeon door slam shut second later._

_Ludo appeared in the doorway and roughly pulled Thicknesse's cloak from his back. A tear or two dropped from his eyes as he turned back out of the cell and returned to Ginny's._

_His eyes were pointed toward the floor when he entered my cell wiping his face clear of tears._

"_Mr. Bagman," I said with a tremor in my voice. "Why? What?"_

"_Hermione, I am not Ludo Bagman. Ludo is in a safe house. He has been working with the Ministry for the past week to find you. He was playing a role. He is terribly sorry for anything he may have done to you and Ginny this past week." He said slowly walking toward me with his empty hands raised. "I am Kingsley Shacklebolt."_

"_What?" I gasped. I pushed much more strength into my voice. "Prove it!"_

_A strange smirk appeared on Ludo's face. "The night we moved Harry Potter to the Burrow, you killed a Death Eater and could finally see the Thestral we were flying on. You begged me not to tell anyone because you were afraid of what they would think about you."_

"_Kingsley, help me down!" I shouted, still afraid to smile._

_As he unchained my arms and legs, he caught me as my legs struggled to take my weight. After setting me on the small dirt bed, he took his cloak off and covered me with it. The hair started retreating back into his scalp and his skin grew darker. Suddenly, Kingsley Shacklebolt was kneeling in front of me and staring at me in sympathy._

_I began shaking violently again when I heard several pops outside the main dungeon door._

"_Hermione, I have you. You don't have to worry about those men anymore. That is the sound of people who care about you. With Ludo's help, the remaining Death Eaters have been rounded up." He said as he picked me up and cradled me to his chest. "You are safe now. I have you. I am going to take you to the healers."_

"_There are healers outside?" I questioned him._

"_Yes, there are a few waiting to check on you." He said with a sad note in his voice. "They need to make sure it is safe for you to apparate."_

_I knew he meant just me. I looked over at the two unconscious bodies near the doorway. "One of them slit Ginny's throat." I said in a matter of fact tone._

_He nodded his head sadly and mumbled something unintelligible before he pushed my face into his chest and carried me down the long, dirt passage way. "The Weasley's are here. They aren't allowed down into the dungeon. They don't know about Ginny yet. Be prepared."_

"_What is Harry?" I asked in a whisper._

"_He knows she is gone. McGonagall is going down to Ginny's cell with Harry before they bring her body up."_

_Immediately after we were out of the passage way, the majority of the Weasley family was surrounding us. _

_After kissing the top of my head, Molly cried, "Hermione, you're safe. You're safe." _

_Bill, Charlie, and George all tried to rip me out of Kingsley's arms, but he held me fast. "She needs to stay with me."_

"_That is not bloody well going to happen." George yelled still trying to get me away from Kingsley. "She is practically family!"_

"_I know you hate this, but she needs to go with me."_

_Charlie placed a hand on George's shoulder while he squeezed my hand gently with the other. "We will follow you to St. Mungo's as soon as Harry helps Ginny come up here."_

"_See you soon," Bill said before kissing my forehead lightly. "I need you back at work as soon as possible. I am lost without you."_

_Kingsley carried me over to a healer that made sure it was safe for me to apparate._

_Just before Kingsley and I left the field next to Parkinson Manor, I heard a sound I knew all too well. It was the sound of Harry Potter screaming in pain._

I woke with a start. I had finally realized something. _Ron was not waiting for me outside Parkinson Manor._ I shook my head before wiping the tears from my face. _How had I never noticed that before? Ron should have been there. I was his girlfriend. I was supposed to have been one of his best friend._

I looked at the sleeping man beside me. _Harry had shown up the hospital within hours of seeing Ginny dead. He came to the hospital a good hour or two before Ron had. _The sound of his pain was one I knew too well. I got up from the bed to head downstairs for something to drink.

Looking out of a landing window, I saw that it was early afternoon. A second later, Winky appeared next to me. "Miss, would you be liking some tea and biscuits? I's can make you some."

"That sounds lovely, Winky." I answered and Winky popped out of sight.

I walked into the kitchen to see Winky dropping the tea kettle to the floor and grabbing onto her protruding stomach. I rushed to her side, but she waved me off.

"I is fine, Miss." Winky said through gritted teeth. "Dobette is moving and turning."

I placed my hand on her stomach. The baby was writhing around inside her. I watched Winky's face for a moment before calling for Harry and Kreacher. When they arrived, I caught Winky as she bent over and clutched her stomach again.

"I think she has gone into labor." I said to the concerned looks on their faces. "The baby is going to be here soon."

Harry scooped up the little house elf and carried her to the closet in the back of the kitchen. He laid her down on the small bed he had built for the house elf couple.

Harry and I spent Sunday evening lounging around Number 12 Grimmauld Place. We could hear occasional groans of pain as Winky's labor progressed, but Kreacher would not allow them to help, a couple of house elves showed up to help though.

Hours later, Harry turned down the burgundy with gold trim duvet of Sirius' canopy bed. He asked, "Are you sure you want to go back to work tomorrow? We can spend another day lounging around and waiting for Winky to have her baby."

"I have to go, Harry. I can't just take time off whenever I feel like it. Besides, Kreacher probably will not let us see the baby right after she is born anyways." I said with a half joking smirk as I turned down my side. I slipped into the bed and relaxed. "Not all of us have the money to rattle around this large townhouse."

"Don't knock it until you try it." He joked back with a slight defensive edge to his voice.

"Exactly how much American television did Dudley force you to watch while you were living in Surrey?" I asked mockingly.

His only response was to toss a pillow in my face before turning toward the washroom. He removed his dark tee as he walked. He was showing off his toned and lean muscled body that proved just how much he didn't just rattle around all day.

"Harry, remember to grab a fresh shirt before joining me." I called out to him as he closed the washroom door.

He only grunted through the thick, elm door in response before turning on the shower.

I pulled the covers up and snuggled deeper into them after I grabbed Lavender Brown's latest risqué novel.

Less than twenty minutes later, he had showered, brushed his teeth, changed into his pajamas, and crawled into the plush bed.

I glanced at him as he pulled the comforter and sheet over his long legs that were clad in emerald green and white striped sleep pants. My eyes followed the line of his muscles up to his chest and his bare shoulders.

"Hermione Jean Granger, are you checking me out while reading Lav-Lav's erotica?" Harry asked smirking at me as he got comfortable between the sheets.

"I wasn't checking you out!" I snapped back while blushing profusely. I took a deep, calming breath and continued, "I was just checking to make sure you were properly clothed like I asked you to be."

"Sure you were." He said sarcastically back.

"I was!" I said loudly while slamming my book shut. I took another breath to try to calm myself again. "Also, I appreciate the tank top compromise. I know you hate sleeping with things tight on your arms."

He smiled up at me and reflectively said, "I love that you get that. Ginny never did." His tone and words chased the ire I was feeling out of me quickly.

I had to ask. "I know you only talked to Ron and me about our months on the run. Did you ever try to explain to her that you flashback to the frigid temperature of the tent with too many clothes on while sleeping?"

"I still wasn't ready to talk about it yet." He said dryly. He stared at the ceiling as he continued. "It had only been a year since the battle at Hogwarts. I was still trying to put on a face that I was fine, happy, and back to normal. We were about to be married. Plus, we were talking about starting a family a few years down the line. I couldn't crush her thoughts and hopes and happiness with all of my drama."

I heard all that he said, but I was caught by one thing. "You weren't happy?" I asked quietly staring at him.

He looked up at me through his eyelashes. "I tried to be happy. I knew I was supposed to be. I was the hero, the man that saved the wizarding world. I had an amazing woman on my arm, who I was supposed to be in love with. I was supposed to have pushed past all of those cold nights with the two or three of us huddled together in that horrendous tent. I was supposed to look past Fred, Collin, Lupin, and Tonks deaths. I was supposed to go to every fighting or innocent by-stander's funeral. I was supposed to stop everything to listen to everyone's praise and happiness that the war was finally over while listening to their misery at the same time." He took a deep breath before finishing. "I tried and wanted to be happy, but I wasn't."

I felt a lone tear escape my welled eyes and quickly wiped it away. I didn't know what to say in response to that. I reached over and brushed his unruly hair out of his eyes and off of his forehead.

"Mione," he looked up questionably. "Were you two ever in the same room down in that maze of dungeons?"

"Harry, I don't think this is a good idea." I said turning my head to the side and wiping away the now free flowing tears.

He reached up and across my body to cup my chin in his hand gently. "I need to know. I need to know that she saw a friendly face that she loved the last month of her life." He said as he turned my face back to his. The look of raw emotion and need on his face broke me further.

I nodded minutely against his hand. It was such a slight movement he had to feel it more than see it.

He nodded back with tears streaming from his own eyes. "Come here, Hermione." He commanded as he dropped his arm to my hands that were wrapped around my chest. "We need to get some sleep if you insist on going to work tomorrow."

I allowed him to pull me easily down to lay beside him. He tugged me closer into his side. After several quiet moments, I feigned sleep and heard Harry succumb to his Dreamless Sleep Draught a minute or two later. I fell asleep a little while later after matching my breath with his.

_After the familiar squeeze of apparation, Kingsley and I were in a private lobby of __St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Several healers rushed towards us. _

_I hid further into Kingsley's broad strong chest. "I want Hannah Abbott." I said quietly._

"_What was that, Hermione?"_

"_I want Hannah Abbott. I need Hannah." I said louder. "I need Hannah Abbott!"_

_Head Healer, Hippocrates __Smethwyck, said, "You don't __want a Healer-in-Training, especially one that is in the delivery ward. I will take care of you personally, Miss Granger." _

_I grabbed Kingsley's wand out of his vest's top wand pocket. I jumped out of his arms while keeping his cloak wrapped around me. "I have been tortured for… for…"_

"_A month…" Kingsley supplied._

"_Thank you, Kingsley." I said before starting over keeping Kingsley's wand pointed at Smethwyck's chest. "I fought in a war, ready to give my life to save others. I am one third of the damned Golden Trio. I have been stripped naked, tortured, and raped for the past month. I am cranky and hungry. I just had to listen to one of my best friends die. I want Hannah Abbott. You will bring her to me in a room now."_

"_Of course, Miss Granger. If you will just follow Healer Pye, he will show you to a room right away." Smethwyck said backing away from the crackling sparks emanating from the wand pointed at his chest._

_Moments later, I was lying in a bed in a private room waiting for my friend._

_Hannah burst through the door with tears streaming down her face. She rushed to my side and hugged me a little tighter than I could stand. "Hermione, I am so glad you are safe. My trainer told me about Ginny. I couldn't stand it if you were gone, too."_

"_I know," I said hugging her back. "I need to know though."_

_Hannah let go of me and looked me straight in the eye. "I talked with Smethwyck. He is going to keep some information to himself. He promised not to disclose that even to the Ministry of Magic."_

"_What information?" Kingsley demanded from her._

_She looked back and forth between the imposing Minister of Magic and me._

"_Hermione, what are you two young women hiding from me?" He said trying unsuccessfully to intimidate me._

_Hannah wrapped her arm around my shoulders as I turned to cry into her shoulder. I managed to brokenly say, "Ginny was… Ginny was pregnant. She planned… she planned to… to tell Harry, but didn't or couldn't because. We were getting supplies… for her to tell him the day we were taken."_

_Kingsley went to sit in the visitor chair, but missed and slipped down the wall to sit hard on the floor. "Shit." He whispered._

After almost a half hour of lying awake after that dream, I was still moving my fingers up and down across the ridges of Harry's vest. I slowly inched out from under his arm and slipped from the room.

It was only 11 o'clock. I grabbed my robe and made my way to the drawing room fireplace. Whispering a quick spell and throwing a pinch of powder in the fireplace erupted into green flames.

"AFT Manor." I said hoarsely into the flames.

Seconds later, Hannah and Seamus Finnigan's drawing room swam before my eyes. Seamus screeched at the surprise of seeing my head in the grate. Hannah came running into the room to see what was wrong with her husband.

After looking around and seeing what caused her husband to scream, Hannah laughed at him saying, "Seamus Finnigan! Sometimes, I swear you had to have taken a courage potion the night of the battle."

Laughing at the common remark, he answered with, "I thought you liked when Neville and I rigged the bridge to blow."

Hannah smiled and kissed his cheek. "I did. Now, get out. I need to talk to Hermione."

Seamus waved to Hermione before kissing his wife on the head as they passed each other crossing to opposite sides of the room. Hannah crouched down in front of me on the golden yellow and burgundy paisley hearth rug.

"Now that Seamus is gone, tell me to what do I owe the pleasure of this late night floo call?" She asked as she placed her elbows on the tile and her smiling face in her hands.

I bit my lip for a long, tense moment before blurting out everything that had happened over the course of the past few days. "Hannah I lied to him. I told him I saw her in those dungeons." I ended with tears streaming down my face. "I don't know if I can keep doing this."

"I have asked you the same question every time we have talked about that time for the past two years. You must tell Harry the truth eventually, why not now?" Hannah said reaching into the emerald green flames to wipe away a few tears from my cheek. I truly believe it is past time that he learned what really happened during your time there. He deserves to know about his child."

"I can't. I can't tell him about the baby." I said beginning to panic. "I just lost one best friend. Please don't make me do something to lose another just after I have found him again."

"Well, that is my official Healer opinion. You need to tell him the whole truth, not just for him. Those headaches and chest pains you have been having for the past two years aren't only from the spells they used against you. You both will be able to move on with your lives."

"I'll think about it, Hannah." I said placating her. Then, I realized the time from the chime of the grandfather clock in the corner of the drawing room. "I am sorry for keeping you up this late. Seamus will probably be pissed at me tomorrow."

"No, he won't. He is probably passed out in bed spread out and taking up the whole thing." Hannah said waving off my worry.

"Thanks for the mental image." I laughed back. "I will see you next week at the Dumbledore's Army meeting."

"Bye, Hermione." Hannah said as I began to pull my head out of the flames.

After making myself a cup of warm tea, I climbed the stairs and slipped into the bed in Regulus' old bed. I stared into the dark trying to find a reason to dispute Hannah's theory of telling Harry the truth. I have known I needed to tell Harry everything for a while now, but I didn't think either of us could handle it.

I drifted off into uneasy sleep thinking about Harry, Ginny, a baby that should have been born, and a silver corkscrew earring creating a hole through a thick dirt, rock, and clay wall.

_Author's Note~_

_Again, I didn't create any new characters. Mr. Parkinson was talked about in a couple of the books. Shunpike was in books 3, 6, & 7. Thicknesse was in book 7 (I am going with the book version where he fought Percy, but we don't know what happened to him after the wall that killed Fred fell.) Healers Smethwyck and Pye are healers in the Dai Llewellyn ward in book 5._

_I hope you are still with me. This chapter is a lot to deal with. Please let me know what you think._

_DuckiBelle_


	5. Chapter 5

_This story is a repost from KaliMione77. It has been more fleshed out updated._

_I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in the world that J. K. Rowling. I just enjoy messing with her characters a little!_

_Hermione thoughts are in Italics._

I woke up to one of the Hogwarts house elves opening the curtains of the giant windows. "Hello," I said sleepily. "How is Winky feeling this morning?"

"Winky, Kreacher, and Dobette is being fine this morning." The house elf squeaked quietly. "Kreacher say you can be seeing the baby this evening afters work."

"That sounds lovely," I said smiling at the elf.

The elf would have blushed if she could, but bowed her head instead. Before popping out of the room, she said, "Breakfast is in the kitchen when you is ready."

I got up showered and dressed in some of the clothes Winky had washed before she went into labor. I plan to ask Bill to make sure Ron is not at that house tonight, so that I can get the rest of my things.

I walked down to the kitchen. It was obvious the house elves that are here helping are used to a larger amount of people. There is enough food for the whole of Gryffindor Tower.

I ate a bit of toast with jam and some bacon in silence. When I stood to take my dirty plate to the sink, it was taken from me abruptly. My open hand was filled with a travel mug of fresh, hot coffee.

I walked upstairs to the main hallway. It seemed that the manor was still asleep, but the portraits that were awake greeted me warmly.

"Hermione," Lily said softly as to not wake up her husband.

I walked over to her and whispered a greeting.

"Hermione, are you sure that you are up to going back to work today?" Lily asked like only a mother could. I smiled at this woman who cared about me like a mother, but who had died when she was just a year or two older then myself. "I am not sure this is really a wise decision."

"I really do appreciate your concern." I replied. But I lost my relationship, a best friend, and my home in one night. Work is truly the only real thing I have left."

"What about Harry?" Sirius said from his portrait next to Lily and James'. "I believe that Harry realized now how harmful it was to both of you when he pushed you away."

"I am afraid that once Harry learns the truth that I know, he will push me away for good. No matter how much we seem to need each other." I answered before waving good-bye and heading for work.

* * *

><p>I hid behind a copy of the Daily Prophet that I had picked up in the Leaky Caldron and went straight to my office once I arrived at Gringott's bank at the center of Diagon Alley. I shut the door firmly to let Dennis Creevey, the assistant I share with Bill, know that I did not want to be disturbed. After hanging up my purse and coat, I looked at the mess my desk had become while I was away in Egypt. Sitting down, I felt at home and slipped off my high heels to get extra comfortable. Then, I dove into my work head first.<p>

Working steadily, I was able to clear my desk in a matter of three hours. I stood up to stretch and my body realized that it was in desperate need of fresh coffee. I slipped my heels back on before walking toward my door to get a mug of Dennis' famous coffee and biscotti. Opening my office door, I spotted Bill and Dennis huddled together ripping up pieces of parchment.

Surprising the two men, I asked, "Did another old girlfriend of Bill's look him up again? Fleur won't like that one bit."

Bill looked up at me like a little child that had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "It is… What I mean is… This isn't…"

Dennis shook his head at Bill's stumbling words. "Bill just found some unflattering messages on my desk. Now, he is trying to destroy them."

"What kind of messages?" I asked trying to focus on a tiny bit of gossip that was not my life.

"All of the owled messages from his family to you," Dennis answered when Bill wouldn't even look me in the eye. "Harry had blocked all forms of communicate to Grimmauld Place once he let people know that you were safe. They sent their not very nice messages here before you set them straight, which I would still like explained to me."

"In due time," Bill said walking over to the couch in the reception area. "I cannot explain it until I know the whole truth."

I forgot about grabbing a mug of coffee and sank down next to Bill. "No one will know the truth until Ron decides to grow up and talk to his family."

"Or if you decide to talk to Harry," he whispered back to me. "I do not know what you are refusing to tell him, but it will go better if you tell him sooner rather than later."

I bit my lip and nodded.

* * *

><p>When I arrived at Grimmauld Place, the whole house smelled delicious. I hung my coat up and headed to the kitchen in search of Harry.<p>

Harry was standing at the stove, wearing a flowered apron, and stirring something in a large steaming pot on the stove. The wireless was playing in the corner. He looked so relaxed and happy.

_I do not know how I am going to say this to him._

"Hermione, I know you are staring at me." Harry said with a smirk evident in his voice. "Go upstairs and take a nap. You are probably exhausted after taking a few days off work. Fleur owled to say that she and Molly have packed up your things. Fleur and Bill are going to drop them off and stay for dinner in about an hour."

"I am going to go change and take a headache potion. I will be back down soon."

I walked up the stairs slowly and entered the bedroom that Harry and I have been sharing. I kicked off my shoes near the window seat and sat down slowly. I leaned back and pulled my legs underneath me.

_I will curl up here for just a few minutes before going back downstairs. Bill and Fleur coming for dinner might be a good thing. I can tell Harry with people who love and support him here._

Seconds after those thoughts, I fell back into the dungeons of Parkinson Manor.

* * *

><p>"Hermione… Hermione… Wake up… Hermione…" a familiar voice said adding to my memory nightmare of Ginny and my captivity. "Wake up… Hermione…"<p>

I turned in Hannah's arms looking for the new voice. I couldn't see anyone and Hannah's arms felt different around me.

"Hermione, you need to wake up." The male voice said again. "I don't know what else to do." "Hermione, please wake up. Kreacher will be back any moment with Hannah. Please wake up."

"Harry? Where? What is wrong?" I said blinking my eyes open. I looked up into Harry's face that was very close to mine. I realized that his arms were wrapped tightly around me. I could see Bill and Fleur standing in the doorway.

"Nothing is wrong now." He said with relief in his voice. "I have been trying to wake you up for almost twenty minutes. I sent Kreacher to fetch Hannah. You kept yelling her name. I was getting worried."

"I'm fine, Harry." I said before easing out of his arms and sitting up against the headboard. I kept my eyes low and avoided everyone's gaze.

"Hermione, you kept saying 'the baby' and Hannah's name." Harry said a little sheepishly. He looked at me through half closed eyes and asked, "Are… Are you pregnant?"

I coughed a few times, choking on air. I eventually sputtered out, "No! No, I am not pregnant."

He held his hands up in defense. "Sorry, it was just a guess. I know you said you and Ron haven't in a long time, but I wouldn't put it past you to cast a glamour charm on yourself to be able to keep working. I just wanted to be sure."

My breathing calmed down a bit. "In order for that to be possible, Ron would have had to touch me since our engagement party eleven months ago." I paused ignoring Harry's shocked face. "Maybe the fact that he didn't like sex with me should have been a clue."

"Sorry to backtrack, but if you aren't pregnant, why are you dreaming about babies and Hannah?" Bill asked breaking me from my thoughts. "Do you want to be pregnant?"

"Um… I… Um… No… Yes… I don't know… Um…" I mumbled through my finger after I covered my face in embarrassment. "Of course, I want children someday."

Hannah spoke up from the doorway. "Hermione, if you have been for the perfect moment to explain things, here it is on a silk sheeted bed."

"Thanks for the help. I'm not really ready for this." I threw the covers off of me and crossed to the three in the doorway. I pushed past them and stomped down the stairs. Hannah followed close behind me so that I could not really get away from her.

"Hermione, what are you and Hannah talking about?" Harry asked trying to keep up with the two of us. Bill and Fleur followed close behind Harry.

"It was just a nightmare about the past." I started throwing my hands up in the air.

They moved faster to catch me.

Harry wrapped his arms around me from behind. "Mione, I never knew you lost a child." He took a several shallow breaths before asking his next question. "Did those Death Eater bastards… um… did they do anything to …?"

I shook my head slowly no.

His shoulders slumped against me. He was visibly relieved. "Fine, then explain to me exactly what this is about?"

I looked back toward Hannah for assistance.

She simply said, "Explain."

I turned back to Harry. "I was never pregnant, but Ginny was. The surprise that she was planning the day before the one year anniversary of the battle was to tell you. She wanted everything to be perfect."

"What the hell, Hermione?" Bill exclaimed. "How could you have kept that from us?"

Harry just stood there in silence. He was staring at her as if she now had seven heads.

I decided to continue on. "The bastards didn't realize she was pregnant right away, but they figured it out after a while. I heard some plan that they were going to raise the baby to hate you, but in the end that plan did not matter. "

"Why? How? Why?" Harry babbled out. He cleared his throat. "Why did you not tell me?"

I tried to reach for his hand, but he pulled it away before I could even touch him. "Harry, I was scared. The only people that knew were Hannah and I. I couldn't tell you and cause you anymore pain. It seemed as if your heart was already ripped from your chest. I couldn't take your soul away, too."

"I don't think that I can see you anymore, Hermione." Harry said with a dead tone in his voice. "I need you to leave."

"Harry, think about this. She was just trying to keep you from getting to a point of no return. She was trying to do what she thought was best for her best friend and for Ginny's privacy." Bill said in an effort to defend my action.

"Ginny was dead!" Harry yelled back at the older wizard. "What in the bloody hell did Ginny need privacy for?"

"How would you have felt back then?" Bill asked. "You had just lost Ginny. How would you have felt to learn that you had lost a child that you didn't even know about?"

"I will never know because Hermione took that choice away from me." Harry spat back. Taking a calming breath, he quietly said, "Please just go. I cannot handle this right now."

"We will go." I answered. "If you find you can forgive me, I will be at Shell Cottage."

* * *

><p><em>Author's Note~<em>

_So, Harry finally found out. The next few chapters will be fixing these problems._

_ ~DuckiBelle_


	6. Chapter 6

_This story is a repost from KaliMione77. It has been more fleshed out and updated._

_I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in the world that J. K. Rowling. I just enjoy messing with her characters a little!_

_Thoughts are in Italics._

* * *

><p>Fleur sat down next to me on the comfortable, yet fashionable couch. She wrapped her arms around me and smoothed my hair. "Hermione, Harry will come around. He is just in shock."<p>

Bill looked at his wife like she had grown a second head. She shot him a glare and he said, "Let's get a good night rest. Things might not look so miserable in the morning."

* * *

><p>The morning did not look any brighter. The rain beat down on the sandy lawn. It streamed down the window panes very much like that tears were streaming down my cheeks.<p>

* * *

><p>The mornings that followed continued in much the same way. Some mornings there was rain, but some mornings there were just tears streaming down. I forced myself to go to work, but I ended up staring out of my window overlooking the Gringott's banking floor.<p>

After a couple of weeks, I could not even force myself out of bed. Bill made excuses for me at work. I just stared at the ceiling above my borrowed bed. As I stared, I thought about how I could have done this to Harry, how could I have ripped away a family that he didn't even know about. _How could I do that to someone I love?_

* * *

><p>"Has she moved at all today? Is she doing any better?" Bill asked to the group of ladies huddled around the kitchen table in Shell Cottage. None of the four women answered, but I knew at least one of them shook their head no when Bill plopped into a chair and whispered, "Oh."<p>

I huffed lightly because their answer wasn't completely true. I had stopped fighting them when to move me or dress me over the past week. I didn't have the energy to fight anymore. I had actually swallowed a potion or two earlier on my own without Hannah helping by rubbing my throat. Hannah had caught me getting myself a glass of orange juice and made me swallow the potions before I retreated again. Plus, when Fleur, Kate, Luna, and Hannah, left me alone for twenty minutes by going to pick ingredients from the garden, I flooed to the house I had for a short time called home. I had quickly and quietly run up to the bedroom. I cast the strongest itching charm that I could muster on the sheets and ran back to the floo like I had never moved from the couch.

Their conversation interrupted my musings.

Fleur asked her husband, "Did he let you see him today?"

"He blocked me from even landing on the front stoop." Bill answered dejectedly. "I am afraid we are all going to have to band together to break through the wards he has put up around Grimmauld Place. Hermione taught him too well those months that they were on the run."

I could picture Katie stopping rubbing her swollen stomach to lean her elbows on the table as she spoke. "Winky and I came up with a rough plan while the children were taking naps this afternoon."

"Oh, no!" Fleur interrupted. "You have been spending way too much time with that husband of yours."

"Hilarious." Katie retorted. "Back to the idea, what if someone sends him a distress signal to draw him out?"

"Katie, I know that you mean well, but…" Bill started to say.

Then, Katie's hand slapped the table. "Listen to me. We send a patronus into Grimmauld Place with a message that someone is in danger."

Hannah interrupted her. "It sounds like you have a couple of flaws in your plan. None of us are in danger. He will hate us for lying to him."

Luna's newborn son gave a small burp as she added to the discussion. "He can't be angry if it is the truth."

"We are not putting someone in danger just to draw Harry out of his self imposed isolation." Fleur exclaimed.

"Luna is right. A distress signal could be the truth right now." Bill stated calmly.

"How so?" Hannah inquired.

"Hermione is in danger in a way. Luna and I can see it."

Fleur, Katie, and Hannah's faces were probably flicking back and forth between the blonde and the ginger trying to gain understanding.

Luna answered first as she stood, scraping her chair on the floor. "Hermione is losing her magical power which is draining her physically." She said before cooing to her daughter after nestling her in the basinet setting in the corner.

"She is what?" Katie asked dumbfounded.

"Oh, my. It is very hard to come back from that if it is true." Hannah added seemingly to herself. "I only read a couple of case studies when I was a healer-in-training."

"Ron noticed that her magic is getting weaker as well." When the room stayed silent, Bill explained. "She flooed over to Ron's place and cast an itching charm on their old bed."

"You are in contact with Ron after what he did to Hermione." Fleur said sounding outraged. "You almost disowned Hermione when you had only guessed that she cheated on him. His betrayal is part of the reason Hermione is getting weaker."

"Healer Pye has been kind enough to keep me updated on Ron's visits to the outpatient ward." Bill stated. "He was a couple of years below me at Hogwarts. I used to tutor him in Transfiguration."

"Oh, well that is fine." Fleur said calming her French passionate side quickly. Then, she snapped in surprise. "Hermione has been sneaking out of the house."

"Hermione sneaking out of the house is understandable. Who really wants to be babysat by four of their best hen friends and their husbands?" Hannah said half thoughtfully. "But the real problem is her magic is leaving her."

"I think it might…" Luna started.

Katie quickly interrupted her. "Luna, for the love of Merlin, please does not say that nargles or a crumpled horned snorkack or a moon frog or a blibbering humdinger or a gulping plimpy or anything else is stealing her magic."

"I wasn't going to say any of those. I was going to say that Hermione's magic, like all of ours, is tied to her emotions." Luna said in a matter of fact tone. "She needs to see Harry. What happened between them needs to be fixed by them or Hermione might suffer irreparable damage."

"Wow! That was quite intelligent, Luna." Bill said dumbfounded.

"I was in Ravenclaw." Luna answered cheerily back. "Besides, Exploding Snabberwitches are the only animals that are thieves."

"There is the Luna we all know and love." I said accidently out loud.

All of the chairs scrapped against the wood floor of the kitchen as the five adults rushed to see if I had really talked for the first time in two weeks.

Bill and Fleur knelt down in front of me.

"Hermione…" Bill started softly.

I weakly waved my hand to cut him off. "So, is the plan to send Harry a distress signal still the only option?"

The four women and Bill slowly nodded their heads.

"Well, if we can get Professor McGonagall on board, I think I might have a new plan."

* * *

><p><em>Author's Note~<em>

_Hermione's plan takes place in the next post. It will be up in the next day or two. It has already been re-edited._

_DuckiBelle_


	7. Chapter 7

_This story is a repost from KaliMione77. It has been more fleshed out updated._

_I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in the world that J. K. Rowling. I just enjoy messing with her characters a little!_

_Thoughts are in Italics._

**Harry's POV**

Lying on the first level hallway where Dust Dumbledore used to emerge, I could hear every sound in Grimmauld Place. I could hear the small fires cackling in the kitchen and on the third level heating the water tanks. The trees outside were tapping out an unintelligible rhythm on the drawing room windows. The creaks and groans of the foundation settling itself echoed loudly even though the house is several generations old.

I had sent Winky and Kreacher to Hogwarts three weeks ago. They had not wanted to leave me, but they couldn't stay. I couldn't let them stay and have to watch Winky carry around her child while knowing I would never get to see that with Ginny. I forced them to fly on the back of BuckBeak, so he could be with Hagrid. Before they could return I had used the strongest protection and repelling charms to keep them out. So now, the few dishes I had used were piling up the sink and there was a small layer of dusk over the entire house.

I had removed every portrait from the hallways and rooms of the house with the exception of Ariana Dumbledore's. She was unconnected to the whole situation and just wanted a friend. She was stuck in the playroom I had set up for Teddy and the next generation of the Weasley brood. I was able to avoid that room and her most of the time, she tried calling out to me when she heard me crying, but could not venture to find me. I found it even easier to avoid the rest of the portraits that are now stacked against the walls in BuckBeak's house in the back garden.

"Meow!"

"_This is it. I am hearing some long dead, phantom cat. I have truly and finally gone insane."_

"Meow!"

"Ouch!" I yelled as a gray, tabby cat with square markings around her eyes landed claws out on my chest.

"Meow!" The tabby said again as she stared into my face.

"Professor McGonagall, how wonderful to see you again," I said sarcastically. "You would think between my father, godfather, Hermione, and yourself, I would remember to ward against animals."

"Meow!" the professor said again before head butting my chin.

"Would you be so kind as to get off me?" I asked scratching the top of her head.

The tabby jumped lightly off of my chest after digging her claws on my chest again. When her feet touched the floor, she landed as my tall, statuesque, stern, Scottish, transfiguration professor.

"Mr. Potter, what on earth are you doing lying on the floor in the middle of your front hall?" She asked immediately after becoming a human again.

Drumming my fingers on my chest, I answered with, "Why not? As you said, this is my house. Plus, no one is walking around here to step on me."

"Right at this moment, I am here and I will step on you on my way to the kitchen if you don't move quickly." Then, she took a clipped step toward me and I jumped up.

I sat back down and leaned against the wall while listening to her light the stove in the kitchen below.

A few moments later, I followed her down the stairs. Slumping down at the table Hermione and I loved to play chess; I watched her moving expertly around my kitchen to make us tea.

"Minerva, you should stay out of this." I said in hopeless desperation. I knew that if she got involved too much I would consent and forgive Hermione, who in turn would make me forgive myself.

"Just you let me finish this tea. Then, we will talk, Mr. Potter." She answered not even turning to look at me.

After a few more moments of her quietly moved about my kitchen, she set a mug of tea on the table in front of each of us. We sat in silence, sipping our tea, and staring at each other.

"Potter, this tea will only last for so long. You will have to talk to me eventually." She stated frankly raising an eyebrow at me.

"I do not." I said averting my eyes. "I can drink this tea and walk away without talking to you."

"You have never been able to before. I am not entirely sure why you think you will be able to today."

After a long pause, she continued. "Dobette is growing quickly. She has already displayed magic, a week before most infant house elves."

I continued to remain silent, but I looked up at her to continue.

"Mrs. Norris came into the kitchens. Dobette got excited and snap Dobette was riding a yelling Mrs. Norris around the kitchens."

I gave McGonagall a small smile before I said, "I won't forgive her."

"Did I say that you have to? She did keep a large secret from you for a long time." Then, she countered. "You should hear what she has to say about the matter though."

I just took a sip of tea in response. Before Hermione had shown up across the street from my doorstep with no other place to go, I was planning on attending her and Ron's wedding. I was going to apologize for everything I had blamed her for. I wanted to protect her from the hurt I felt Ron might bring her. I missed her and wanted to become the friends we once were again.

"I know that you were planning on becoming friends with Hermione again before this mess with Ron happened." She said trying to draw me out. "I think you both needed to clear everything off your chest before you could actually accomplish that."

I shot her a look conveying that I didn't fully understand her meaning.

"I know that in this short time that you two were friends again you didn't tell her that Ginny was your second choice."

"Minerva, you have no right to bring that up." I jumped up and began pacing the room. I grabbed a bottle of firewhiskey and took a swig before continuing. "Beside Ginny was still my choice."

"I know she was, but I certainly think I do have the right." She said standing up much more gracefully and stepping in my path. "I know what you are thinking. You are wondering 'How in the bloody hell do I tell her? How do I let it all out?' I have to tell you that what I told you before still applies."

"I don't need to go scream at Professor Dumbledore's tomb or at my parent's home or the Riddle Mansion because I am angry at them."

"You forgot telling everyone, especially Hermione, the truth. That is the most important part. I know you think it won't help, but screaming and placing blame on those it actually belongs helped me move past things. Also, Harry, I believe you forgot Parkinson Manor."

"I most certainly did not forget about Parkinson Manor. I never forget about Parkinson Manor. It is permanently on the forefront of my mind." I said mostly to my mug of tea that I had just picked up again. I poured some of the firewhiskey into my mug to top off of the tea.

We finished our tea in silence. Minerva knowing that she had already given me plenty to think about.

She cleaned her mug and came back to clear mine from the table. "Harry, do you think that firewhiskey is really the best choice for you to make while you think things through?"

I took another drink before saying, "Of course, it is. Firewhiskey is the only thing that will give me the courage to walk out to BuckBeak's hippogriff house."

"Why do you need to go out there?" Minerva asked after taking my mug and the bottle of firewhiskey away.

"That, my dear professor, is where Ginny or at least a part of Ginny is." Then, I stood and left the room just before I could catch her with a small, proud smirk on her face that I knew she would be now wearing.

When I was a quarter of the way up the stairs, two small pops indicating Kreacher and Winky's return came from the kitchen. I heard McGonagall say, "Sometimes it takes a while, but things will usually get through his thick skull."

"Too true, Professor." Kreacher and Winky said in response.

**Hermione's POV**

"Do you think that this scheme is working?" I asked the over-full room at large as I paced from the fireplace over several sprawled legs to the kitchen door and back again.

"Of course, we don't think it is going to work." George answered from his spot amongst the infants and toddlers on the floor. "That is why we are all sitting on the couches and floor waiting to hear from McGonagall."

Katie and Molly Weasley smacked George on the back of the head in quick succession.

"Katie, dear, I love you and my son full-heartedly, but sometimes I have no idea why you agreed to marry him." Molly said picking up one of her only two grandsons.

"I appreciated it, George." I said with a smirk on my face as I continued to pace.

"Do you really think that McGonagall will be able to will be able to talk to Harry and make him see that he needs Hermione as much as she needs him?" Bill asked Kingsley and me.

"If any one person can, it will be Minerva." Kingsley stated in a matter of fact tone. "I do not think he is just angry that Hermione had a secret. He is upset with himself and feels guilty."

"Is that because he didn't get to Ginny in time?" Charlie half asked, half stated.

"No," a still partially hexed Ron said from the doorway surprising us all. He held his hand up to stop any of us from rushing him or speaking.

"What in the fucking hell are you going on about?" Charlie snapped at Ron.

"Language, Charlie!" Molly chastised. "This is not the dragon reserve where anything goes."

Ron answered his brother ignoring his mother's interruption. "Harry has been in love with two girls for many years."

"What in the bloody hell do you mean?" Bill asked as he stood to demand that his youngest brother give a full understanding of his confession on Harry's behalf. George, Percy, Charlie, and Arthur stood to form ranks behind Bill as he stepped forward.

"Language, William!" Molly scolded.

"Hermione, I am a much, much bigger wanker than you already thought." Ron stated ignoring his outraged family. "I held on to you so tightly, even though I no longer wanted you as more than a best friend, because then Harry couldn't have you. He may have been the one to push you away two years ago, but I am the one that encouraged and kept driving the wedge between you. I am sorry, Hermione. I will do anything in my power to help the two of you mend things."

Silence hung in the air until Molly stalked over and slapped Ron on the back of the head. "Ronald Bilius Weasley!"

Before anything else could be said to Ron, Professor McGonagall appeared into the door of the family room with a distinct twinkle in her eye. She looked around the now bursting at the seams living room and smiled at all the hopeful looking faces.

Anyone could tell when her eyes landed on Ron. She looked at him with almost pure distain. She shook that off and turned to address me. "Hermione, it may take another day or two, but he is coming around."

I ran forward and surprised her by hugging her tightly. I pulled back and quietly said, "Sorry, Professor."

"No problem, dear." She said gently rubbing her ribs. "Now, as I said he is thinking things over and more importantly he is talking to Ginny."

The entire room was silent for several heartbeats.

"But what in the bloody hell does that mean?" Ron asked feeling brave enough to risk our former Professor's wrath.

**Harry's POV**

I stood pacing outside the large door of BuckBeak's house. I did know what I would be walking into, but I couldn't. I used to be fearless. I used to barrel right in no matter what was on the other side of the door.

Now, that I know that the painting of one of the women I love is in there. I hate that I have to tell her that I love not only another woman, but her best friend.

_I have become a coward._

Mid-pace, mid-step even, I hear my mother's voice saying something I had never heard her say before and never hoped to hear. "Harry James Potter, get in here right now!"

I opened the door a crack and peeked inside. I felt every eye looking at me with annoyance.

"Harry, what is going on?" My mother asked with a stern look on her face.

"Umm…" I knew I should have put her painting behind the others or maybe faced them all toward the wall.

"Umm… doesn't answer my question young man. What is going on?" She asked in a huff. "One minute, you and Hermione are the best of friends, closer than ever before and maybe starting a romantic relationship. Then, she and everyone else, including the portraits, are banished from the house."

"Mum, I love you. I love all of you really in many different ways and some of you way deep down." I said looking toward the floor. I am truly hoping that everyone, especially Ginny, will understand. "But I needed to be on my own for a bit. I needed to work some things out for myself."

The oily, sarcastic voice that belonged to Severus Snape spoke from the portrait next to my mum's. "Are you still pretending that you can work things out on your own? The last time that you actually accomplished that was when you realized when Quirrell couldn't touch you without being in pain and used it against you."

"I got through the Tri-Wizard's maze by myself." I said childishly trying to defend myself and stall the conversation I came in here to have.

"Hermione with Ron's minimal help found spells and helped you master them. She told me once after I found her pasted out in the common room." Ginny answered.

"I decided to ask Padma Patil to the Yule Ball on my own."

"That is the situation you want to be proud of right now?" Ginny snapped back.

I was getting flustered and frustrated. "Mum, aren't you going to defend me?"

"The girl is saying the truth from what I hear. Maybe you should hear her out."

I slumped against the door and waved my hand lazily, indicating Ginny should continue.

"You need to face the truth, Harry. Hermione is your voice of reason and who you turn to for help. I always wanted to be there in that way, but she always was. Will you let me be your voice of reason this once and tell you what you should do?"

"Ginny, there are a few things I need to tell you." I said to answer her question.

"Are they possibly things that McGonagall helped you realize?"

I mumbled, "Sometimes I hate that you can visit your other portraits."

"I know. I wish you could have told me yourself, too." Ginny said reaching out in her portrait like she wanted to trace my jaw line like she used to do to comfort me. "I am glad that you love Hermione. She will be great for you and she wouldn't try to force you to forget me."

"Like anyone ever could," I said with a small genuine smile.

Ginny smiled back. "Can I give you one more piece of advice before you go tell her?" I nodded in ascent. "Take a shower."

Professor Snape added in his snide sense. "I am very glad that we do not have to smell you, but I believe Miss Granger is not so fortunate."

I ran out of Buckbeak's house with a shout that I would hang them in Grimmauld Place again very soon.

_Author's Note~_

_Things are being fixed & are wrapping up._

_DuckiBelle_


	8. Chapter 8

_This story is a repost from KaliMione77. It has been more fleshed out updated._

_I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in the world that J. K. Rowling. I just enjoy messing with her characters a little!_

_Thoughts are in Italics._

* * *

><p><strong>Harry's POV<strong>

It took me a good hour just to shower the smell of laziness and uselessness off of my body. It seemed the more I moved the more sluggish I became. I guess I had not done much for a while, so my muscles had withered some. I needed to resume my exercise regiment and get out of the manor more often instead of literally lying around the house. My muscles ached as I slipped into a grey and red plaid, button-up flannel with and pair of dark denims.

Freshly showered and sharply dressed, I apparated the Burrow boundary line and walked to through the front gate toward the front door. As I walked my legs became heavier and heavier. It felt as though I was walking through quicksand instead of a well loved lawn. I finally made it to the Burrow's front door and stood there not knocking for a long time trying to catch my breath.

I knew I hadn't apparated for a while, but I wasn't expecting to be so tired and winded. I leaned against the doorframe panting. I simply couldn't believe that showering and apparating to the Burrow could take this much out of me. As I panted quietly, I listened to the voices above me in the house.

Molly was mothering and almost smothering Hermione. "Hermione, dear, you must sit down. You are entirely too weak to be up pacing the room like that. Do you want a cup of tea? I could make you a light sandwich or other snack to help keep your strength up."

Bill and Fleur attempted to help Hermione by coxing her to sit with them on the sofa. Hermione must have listened to them because Bill offered to rub her feet if she was willing to swing them onto his lap.

Hermione must have really been restless because she began asking mundane everyday questions to occupy the silence that had filled the room after Molly stopped badgering Hermione. She asked George about the joke shop and talked with Arthur about Sirius' old motorbike. She even went so far as to discuss a few recipes with Molly.

"Hermione, you need to calm down and relax. You are so tense could string you between two polea and have a muggle limbo contest." Bill stated in an exasperated voice. "Being away from Harry this long and knowing he is upset with you… it is draining the small amount of energy you have left."

'_What in the bloody hell?' _I thought as Bill's last statement hit me squarely in the chest. I leaned over further to rest my hands on my knees.

With a tone in his voice that meant it had been asked before, Charlie asked. "Ginny, are you sure that he has left Grimmauld Place?"

Arthur mused, "Even with having to walk from our boundary line, the boy should be at the house by now,"

Ginny answered sounding equally exasperated. "Kreacher snapped all of us back into our proper places while Harry was showering. We could hear him apparate from his bedroom. We can do a portrait house search again, but we will come up with the same result. I am positive that Harry is no longer at Grimmauld Place."

"Then, where in the bloody hell is he?" Ron asked whining.

George huffed. "Hermione, I know you are trying to be the bigger person, forgiving Ron and all, but can I smack him?"

"I never said I forgive him. He just had evidence that helped us understand what Harry is feeling." Hermione chuckled breathlessly. Then, she sobered slightly. "Ron, you better go the natives seem to be getting restless. Besides, Harry will supposedly be here soon. He knows everything and might not be too keen to see you when he does."

Ron answered back. "When you get your strength back and want to yell or throw curses at me, you know how to find me."

George huffed again, interjecting. "Yeah, you will be bunked up with Ken in the house Auntie Muriel gave **you and Hermione **as an engagement present."

"George, leave your brother alone." Molly scolded. "Ron, make sure that you keep that steak on your eye for another ten minutes. It really will help with the swelling since you will not let me heal it."

"Mum, I will keep the steak on, but George is right." Ron said shocking everyone in the room. "Ken and I have talked about it while I was in the hospital. We are going to move all of my stuff into Kenneth's flat in muggle London. Auntie Muriel can do what she pleases with the house." Then, I heard his heavy feet tromp through the house and exit out of the back door in the kitchen.

I knew the moment that he spotted me, still bent over, as he walked through the garden to the front gate. "Harry, is that you?" He asked as he paused. "What are you doing stopping out here?"

I didn't answer him verbally. I just sat down hard onto the bottom step of the front stoop.

"You need to get in there and talk to Hermione. She needs you and it looks like you need her, too." He said loudly enough that I could hear him as he crossed to me. After he stopped right in front of me, he continued, "I am not in the way anymore. There are no more secrets out there that can tear you two apart. The only secret is the choice that you made between Ginny and Hermione."

I just stared at him with angry daggers shooting out of my eyes.

"Hermione is quickly weakening in there. Go talked to her before she can't."

"I can't." I whispered back.

"Why not?" Ron asked indignantly. "What is stopping you now?"

"I mean, you wanker, that I physically can't. Apparently, Hermione isn't the only physically affected by our separation." I said with as much strength as I could muster as I glared up at him. Yes, I knew my wards had been growing slowly weaker over the past few weeks. Yes, I have been sleeping or just lying about more and more over as well. I was horribly sluggish during my shower and as I got dressed. I am just glad I that I finally know why. There is definitely something I can do to fix this problem. "Apparating here took all of the strength I had left."

Ron sat down next to me and draped my arm over his shoulder. After almost dropping flat on my face in the mud, he yelled for his brothers to help get me into the house.

After being unceremoniously and none too gently dumped on the family room sofa by Ron, George, and Bill, the Weasley family retreated from the room to give Hermione and I some privacy. I smiled hearing the breathless laugh come from Hermione over Ron and George's muttered conversation.

"I thought you were leaving, you tosser."

"I was, but I want to see how this plays out. Your back was to her, you didn't see the look she gave Harry."

I had my head turned to watch the family leave and waited for the kitchen door to shut before turning to actually look at Hermione.

Even though she looked very pale and slightly weak, she was beautiful in my eyes. She was sitting at the opposite end of the sofa from me with her feet resting on the cushion between us. She was wearing a deep, navy blue jumper paired with light, faded denims. She contrasted nicely against the burgundy, flowered pattern of the plush sofa.

I gently lifted my hand and placed it on her outstretched feet trying to gain her attention. "Hermione…"

She slowly raised her head to look up at me with eyes brimming with tears. "Harry, may I go first? I don't know how much longer I will have the strength."

"Of course," I answered quickly, hoping to alleviate some of the pain in her eyes.

"I'm sorry." She began as the tears began to fall from her eyes. "Ginny begged me to keep the baby a secret. She was going to tell you that night. She wanted you to have something positive to look forward to in your future before you had to dwell on your painful past at the ball. When she died, I couldn't be the cause of even more pain for you. I forced Hannah and Kingsley to promise never to tell you. This is my entire fault and I am so sorry. I will do anything I can to keep you."

Before her rant was even half done, I had picked up her slipper covered feet and slid underneath her legs to get closer. I cradled her head to my aching chest and rocked her gently as she sobbed. I could feel my shirt dampen. I knew there was nothing I could say to remove her hurt, so I just kissed the crown of her head.

After a few moments of her sobs, I kissed the top of her head again and murmured her name. She made no indication that she had heard me. I moved my right hand from her back and used it to gently, but firmly raise her face to mine. She still avoided looking at me in the eye.

I knew that for Hermione to truly hear me I needed her to stop her guilt-filled tears. "Knitting patterns!" I said in the strongest voice I could muster.

After a couple more choking sobs, Hermione looked me in the eye. "What?"

"Did you know that I collect knitting patterns?"

In the silence that follows, we hear Ron exclaim, "Knitting patterns? He is trying to talk to her about knitting patterns?"

SMACK!

"Shut it! He is trying to make her feel better." Fleur answered back.

Hermione cracked a miniscule smile. "Harry, why do you collect knitting patterns?"

"For Dumbledore," I said with a matter of fact tone.

"Never mind, he has just cracked." George said and I could picture him throwing up his hands.

"Dumbledore used to collect them." I said to Hermione, drawing her attention back to me. "He told Horace Slughorn and me the night that we persuaded Slughorn to come back to Hogwarts. Now, if I happen to see a beautifully intricate or complex design I buy it."

"Oh! So this is a private tribute to him?" Hermione said trying to understand fully.

"Exactly, it is not like I am going to take up knitting and join Mrs. Weasley in knitting the Christmas sweaters."

"I think she might enjoy the help though." Hermione said snuggling back into my chest. The Weasley family is growing quite large."

George started to say, "I know something else that is…"

Katie interrupted him. "George Weasley, shut up!"

SMACK!

Hermione giggled lightly into my chest. "We have a wonderful little audience, don't we?"

"I believe we do." I said kissing her head again. "I think that there is a thing or two that we can do about that."

Hermione moved away by pushing against my leg and chest. "I can barely move around the first floor of the Burrow. There is no way I can run away from all of them."

I cradled her face with my hands. "Can I try something?"

She feebly shook her head between my hands. "You don't even know what is wrong."

"But can I try something?" I asked letting some of the desperation I felt seep into my voice. "Besides, I know more than you think."

I held my breath as she thought. She closed her eyes blocking the thoughts in her brain. She was over thinking.

Knowing that she could be like this for an undetermined amount of time, I decided to act. I quickly moved forward and lightly brushed my lips against hers.

I heard her breath catch before she pressed her lips firmly to mine. Our mouths seemed to move in perfect unison and breathing no longer seemed important.

She finally pulled back. Her breath seemed a little stronger. Her face was rosier and much less pale. "I think you may have something there."

Ron's loud whispering voice broke our gaze. "What did he try?"

I suppose all of the adults in the kitchen were too stunned by his dim-wittedness to answer him, so three year old, Victoire did. "He kissed Hermione, Uncle Won!"

"Oh…" was his only response.

In a small, pleading voice, I asked, "Are you strong enough to side-along apparate away from our audience?"

She chuckled in response before pulling me into one more, breathe stealing kiss. "Now, I am." She said softly before pulling away to stand. Looking down at me, she said, "I do think I can apparate on my own. There is no need for you to expend extra energy."

I stood a little too quickly and Hermione grabbed my upper arms to help steady me. Once I was balanced, I wrapped my arms around her waist and said, "I wish that I was the one that would get to hold you that close, but as you can tell I am not strong enough to do that yet. I am afraid we have to beg assistance from a red-headed, part werewolf and his French wife."

Less than three seconds later, Bill and Fleur apparated into the family room.

"I was counting on that werewolf hearing." I chuckled.

"Nope," George said correcting me after he and Katie followed his oldest brother, "That was just plain, old, nosey Weasley hearing and fast action."

Katie put her hands on her hips. "Besides, did you really think that you could get away from George and I to do something fun that easily?"

"What about your parents, Kingsley, your brothers, and all of the kids?" Hermione asked in her normal quizzical way.

"We are trying to get away from our audience, not bring it with us everywhere." I muttered into Hermione's neck after I dropped my forehead to Hermione's shoulder.

With a mischievous smirk on his face, George said, "Harry, my boy, have I taught you nothing? Never fear when you have a Weasley twin or more importantly his bride on your side."

"I guess it is decided then." Hermione said as she laid her head on my chest.

Fleur clapped excitedly. "Where are we going?"

Even though it pained me at the thought of being away from her again after such a short time, I took a deep breath and said, "To Shell Cottage." I tipped her head back to look into her eyes. I cradled her face in my hands. "I know it will be hard, but please try to do your best to make Hermione even more beautiful than she already is."

"But… why can't we go somewhere together?" Hermione asked as the hurt evident in her face and voice. "I need to explain…"

"I have things that I need to explain as well, but it will have to wait. I have a surprise to plan," I answered before placing a kiss on the tip of her nose. I stepped back from her and felt cold where her arms had been. Bill placed a hand on my shoulder, "To Number 12 Grimmauld Place, please." Then, she was gone from my sight.

* * *

><p><em>Author's Note~<em>

_So Harry and Hermione are figuring things out. Let me know what you think!_

_There will be one more chapter and an epilogue._

_DuckiBelle_


	9. Chapter 9

_This story is a repost from KaliMione77. It has been more fleshed out updated._

_I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in the world that J. K. Rowling created. I just enjoy messing with her characters a little!_

_Thoughts are in Italics._

**Hermione's POV**

The three of us landed in the kitchen of Shell Cottage. Fleur immediately began bustling about making tea while Katie helped me into a chair. After helping me sit, Katie sat in a chair herself and accepted a steaming mug from Fleur while absent-mindedly rubbing her round pregnant stomach.

"How are you feeling, Hermione?" Katie asked before taking a sip.

"I should be asking you that." I panted. She shot me a non-amused glare, so I answered her question. "I am feeling a bit off, but I think have enough strength to take a shower all by myself."

"Then, off with you." Fleur laughed waving a hand in my direction. "I will pick out a few outfits for you to try."

An hour later, I had showered and dressed a simple, but beautiful dress Fleur said she was letting me borrow, but was two sizes too big for her and perfect for me. The dress was a light gold, off the shoulder dress that was fitted to my hips, and then it flared out slightly as I twirled. Katie had attacked my hair with a hairbrush and Sleekeazy's Hair Potion. My hair was fallen in soft and light as it cascaded down my back in large curls. Fleur had done my make-up, so subtly that I could barely tell I was wearing any. The only tells are the brightness of my eyes and the rosy, shine of my lips.

"Are you ready for this?" Katie asked putting her feet up on the coffee table. "This bond between you and Harry is very strong and magical. Are you ready to deal with something of this magnitude?"

I looked at Katie across the table for a long moment before answering. "I have felt a connection with him since the moment I meet him. I always pushed it into a category of kinship and family, but as we have grown the connection has grown stronger and stronger."

"What was it like for you when you were younger?" Fleur asked.

I didn't know if she just wanted to pass the time or if she was really interested. Either way, I answered "We were just friends for a while. We spent time together and did homework together. In our third year, I was devastated when he didn't talk to me for a month or so. When we were hiding out in Hagrid's cabin while waiting to rescue Sirius, I desperately wanted to kiss him. I never even told Ginny. I couldn't because her friendship meant so much to me. I didn't have many muggle friends before I went to Hogwarts. During the Tri-wizard Tournament, I forced myself to spend time with Viktor Krum to keep from seeing Harry pine for Cho Chang. Viktor and I did like to read side by side. From then on, I tried to focus on other things or another person."

"I heard about what happened when I was out during my seventh year." Katie giggled. "I really wish I had seen you attack Ron with your little yellow birds."

"You are why he is afraid of canaries? " Fleur shouted out. "I have some in the small, guest bedroom. When he left you and Harry and hid out with us, he wouldn't sleep in that room until Bill moved their cage into our bedroom."

"That is hilarious. He definitely didn't tell Harry or me about that when he came back." I said laughing. I calmed down went "I was jealous when Ron was with Lavender though. I don't think it was because I loved Ron as more than a friend and wanted to be snogging him all over the place. Harry was pinning after Ginny, so to make things… um… complete, I was supposed to be with Ron. I was jealous because she interrupted my group or school family, I guess."

The Weasley family clock that held hands for Bill, Fleur, and Victoire chimed. Bill's hand had moved from Number 12 Grimmauld Place to Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Fleur hopped up while Katie struggled to her feet. Fleur bounced in place as Katie and I got to our feet, then she quickly moved me over to stand by Katie.

Katie looked at me and smiled a teary smile. "Hermione, are you sure you are ready for this, for you and Harry, for Love?"

I bit my lip, but nodded my head firmly.

"Okay, then Fleur led on."

We appeared just outside the large, ornate gates that helped in the protection of Hogwarts. I looked up to the school in awe. I was calmed at the sight of the large, beautiful, and magical castle. It has been two years since I last laid eyes on it, but it still held the same appeal for me to go inside and learn.

Finally, I turned away form the castle to look at my two excited friends. "Does either of you two know why we are here? I love Hogwarts and everything, but I would really like to see Harry soon."

"We aren't exactly sure of why we are here, but I think they can fill us in." Fleur said as she pointed to something behind me.

I whipped around to see men walking down from the castle. When they got close enough, I saw that it was George and Bill.

"Hello, Ladies!" George called when they were still a distance away. "How lovely you look in the evening light."

Katie whispered in my ear. "Watch out, George is trying to charm us. That is never good."

Bill reached us first with his longer legs. "Hello, ladies. I apologize, but I had given up trying to rein in George years ago."

"That is fine, Bill." I answered with a small smile. "I gave up listening to George years ago."

"I… I… I am completely offended!" George said with mock hurt in his voice.

"Oh, come off it George." Katie said playful swatting at her husband through an open loop in the bars. "Please open the gate. The babies are dancing again and I need to sit soon."

George perked up. "Are they dancing the Tango, the waltz, the cha-cha, or just jumping around like we do to the Weird Sisters?"

Katie just groaned.

Fleur asked Bill very politely. "Darling, please let us in. Katie needs to maim George and Hermione would love to see Harry soon."

After smacking his younger brother on the back of his head, Bill pulled out his wand and did a few complicated wand movements. The gates popped open letting the three of us in.

George wrapped his arm around Katie's waist. Then, he began leading her up the long drive toward the castle doors.

Bill offered an arm out to Fleur and me. We linked our arms with his and started our own way up the drive.

Bill had to assist George in getting Katie and the twins she is carrying up the castle's front stairs. Fleur helped me climb them, taking a break every few steps for a moment or two. Bill came back down and carried me up the last ten steps.

He looked at me with concern on his face. I gave him a small smile to try and curb his worry.

"You are really pale, Hermione. Do I need to take you to Madame Pomfrey?" He asked leaning to whisper in my ear.

I shook my head no. "I did too much. I just need to see Harry."

"Are you sure?"

"I have been weak for too long. I was bound to become tapped out from my short energy boost sooner or later." I answered still with my weak smile. "I should not have fought with Fleur about the clothes."

Harry's voice interrupted me. "If Fleur is the one that got you into that dress, no you shouldn't have fought with her."

"Harry," I said breathlessly as I turned my head and spotted him.

Harry was leaning back against the banister of the Grand Staircase in the Entrance Hall. He looked dashing in his chocolate brown suit with a crisp white shirt and a pale lilac tie.

Bill walked closer to Harry and then, carefully adjusted me in his arms so he could gently place my feet on the marble floor. Harry held his hand out to me and I took it gratefully.

"You look lovely, Hermione." Harry whispered as he guided me to move closer to him. When I was close enough, he leaned down and kissed my forehead reverently.

"You look quite handsome yourself." I whispered back as I curled myself into his chest and he wrapped his arms around me.

Wrapped in his arms and warmth, I barely noticed when Katie, George, Fleur, and Bill slipped into the Great Hall.

The only reason, I actually registered it is because of the flood of noise from the chattering students and its abrupt cut off.

Harry kissed me on the crown of my head and sighed in relief. "How are you feeling? I was afraid you weren't strong enough to get ready."

I hummed with contentment. "I did just fine. I even showered myself. Besides, I am perfectly fine right now."

"Good because I have something to tell you." Harry said with his smile evident in his voice. "If I don't do it soon, we will both suffer even more."

"What?" I asked leaning my head and shoulders back away from him to see his face.

"I love you, Hermione Jean Granger. I have loved you in some way or another since I was eleven years old. I should have followed my heart a long time ago and asked you to the Yule Ball instead of trying too ask my second choice. I never thought I was good enough for you, so I almost always went with my second choice." Then, he leaned down kissed me.

The kiss was slow, but passionate and ignited an intense fire burning low in my stomach. My hands that had been resting against him, they ghosted over the planes of his chest, skimmed up the column of his neck, and wound up tangled in his already disheveled, brown hair.

As the kiss grew stronger, the fire inside me raged hotter and I felt a renewed sense of energy and strength that I hadn't felt in a long time.

Our lips only parted when our lungs screamed for air. After a quick breath, our lips came together again.

Merlin only knows how long we stayed locked in our embrace, but an exaggerated throat clearing brought us back to reality and where we were. I laid my head on Harry's chest facing away from the person standing at the Great hall doors. Harry looked in that direction while resting his chin on the top of my head.

"Harry, the students are almost done eating dinner and are getting restless. You might want to move things along and get to your next question before you two end up frightening and scarring the little first and second years." Bill advised. I could picture a very amused smile on his face.

Harry lifted his head slightly and nodded. "Please ask Minerva for five more minutes."

"And if you need a little more time?" Bill asked stretching out his question.

Harry shrugged. "Then, I guess we scare the younger students."

Bill chuckled as he went back into the hall.

"Harry, what question is Bill talking about?" I asked still hiding my face in his chest.

Harry sighed nervously.

"Just say it." I said softly. "I can handle anything as long as it isn't that you have to leave in five minutes for an extend trip."

"Okay, but you have to let me say everything."

I swallowed nervously, but nodded my head.

"I know that we haven't had the easiest road. We have had more than our share of hardships. We have lost a great deal… family… friends… loves… time. I hope we can change our path toward a happier, less rocky one together."

"What are you going with this rambling speech, Harry?" I asked hoping, but not counting on what he might be talking about.

"I thought you agreed to let me finish." Harry said sarcastically. I shrugged my shoulders and he continued. "I waited too long in the past and I thought that I had lost everything. I don't want to make that mistake again."

I nodded in agreement and understanding. I had to blink my eyes in attempt to hold back the tears that were beginning to form.

Harry pulled his arms from around me and looked me dead in the face. "I love you and I know that you love me, too. I want to have everything with you."

He wiped a few tears that had escaped my eyes. He moved us so that I could sit on the stairs that had been behind him. After helping me sit, he straightened with a nervous huff. He pulled a small, velvet box out of his pocket and lowered himself to one knee in front of me.

Taking a hold of my hands, he said, "I know that this is very sudden and technically you and Ron broke off your engagement about a month ago. I don't care. I don't want to wait to have everything with you. Will you marry me, Hermione?"

The world seemed to stop for several long heartbeats before the world speed up again. Everything started happening at once. The students burst out of the Great Hall, chattering loudly. Bill and George were yelling at the students to return to their seats or at least keep quiet. Charlie, Kursten, Arthur, and Molly appeared in the castle entrance with all of the Weasley grandchildren. Percy and Penelope came down the Grand Staircase brushing ashes from the Floo Network off of themselves and my parents.

Most importantly of all, Harry saw me mouth the words "Yes, I will marry you! I love you!"

Headmistress McGonagall's office was filled to capacity. The Weasleys surrounded the outside of the room, including my parents in their circle. Lining the walls were crowded portraits. The former headmasters allowed the deceased friends and family of the happy couple to join them from their portraits in the war memorial hallway.

"Everyone quiet, please." Headmistress McGonagall said sternly. "Since everyone has now squeezed into my office, I believe it is time to begin. We are here to witness the joining of these two in magically matrimony…"

* * *

><p><em>Author's Note~<em>

_This was the last chapter. The epilogue will follow shortly. I hope you enjoyed this story!_

_DuckiBelle_


	10. Chapter 10

_This story is a repost from KaliMione77. It has been more fleshed out updated._

_I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in the world that J. K. Rowling. I just enjoy messing with her characters a little!_

**Epilogue**

Hermione walked down the stairs with her father supporting her. I could see him lean closer to her and whisper in her ear. I could hear her tinkling laughter all the way to the front of the Great Hall.

Ron winked at me from the front row. "What do you think he said to her?"

"I am not sure. She is still walking this way, so I don't think it could have been anything too bad." I whispered back.

"She looks beautiful." Ron whispered as Hermione and her father reached the doorway to the Great Hall.

"She always does." I answered smiling like a love-sick fool.

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat beside me and gave us an old familiar stare.

We both hung our heads and murmured, "Sorry, Professor McGonagall."

George, Bill, and Charlie chuckled from the front row, earning them a glare themselves.

Hermione was halfway up the aisle when we locked eyes and I couldn't care what was happening with the others. She smiled at me and blushed. After all these years, she still hates to be the center of attention.

I mouthed "I love you" to her to keep her eyes on mine. She nodded and bit her bottom lip under her veil.

I heard Ron whisper "Minx", but I chose to ignore him. I just continued to stare at her.

Hermione was breath-taking in her wedding dress. The gown was exquisite on her. It was a very pale gold that seemed to glow in the candlelight filling the Great Hall. Her creamy shoulders were strong and exposed above the fitted, silver vine beaded, strapless bodice. At her hips, the skirt flared out like a ball gown covered in ragged ruffles all the way down to the floor and to the end of the two yard long train. The two page boys and the two young bridesmaids kept peeking around Hermione to wave at me and quickly picking the long train back up again.

When Hermione and her father reached me, he placed her small hand in mine and smiled warmly. He kissed Hermione on the cheek before turning toward his seat with his wife. As he went to sit, he ushered the four young children over to the small chairs that were placed in front of his.

"Harry, you better wave back to those four kids before Iris Ginerva comes over to get your attention. You know how much I hate to be interrupted when I am speaking, even if it is by an adorable three year old." McGonagall said with a raised eyebrow.

The entire audience laughed as I kissed Hermione on the cheek, then I walked around the train of her gown and over to the little ones. I ruffled my six year old and four year old boy's hair. Albus Severus and Collin Sirius had spent the night before getting ready with me and didn't really want any more of my attention at the moment. My five years old, Lily Rose, and my three year old, Iris Ginerva, had been with their mother last night and were desperate for a little daddy attention.

I knelt in front of Lily and Iris. "Hello, my girls. You both look really beautiful in your dresses. Did you have a good night?" They nodded their heads yes. "I'm glad. I will dance with you both later, but now I need to go talk with your mum and Professor McGonagall." They nodded their heads in understanding. I kissed both of their foreheads and walked back to Hermione and McGonagall.

Hermione giggled. "They really do have you wrapped around their little fingers, don't they?"

"Like those four don't convince you to let them have strawberry milk every night when I am not looking." I said getting her back.

"I swear I have no idea how you two passed my N.E.W.T. Transfiguration class." McGonagall said rolling her eyes.

Ron provided an answer from his seat. "Harry and I copied Hermione's notes as much as possible. She helped us with our essays, too."

The entire audience laughed again while McGonagall looked at Ron and me with a stern look. Hermione giggled and silently encouraged Professor McGonagall to begin.

After clearing her throat, Professor McGonagall began the ceremony. "Harry and Hermione, you two have traveled a long and winding road to get to this place. Through all your travels you have been there for each other, despite how much you were ignoring each other and even when the support didn't seem to be wanted. This road wasn't easy for either of you, but no one ever believed that the road to a true love is easy. Everyone here can see how much you truly love each other. Everyone here has seen how much your love has not only healed and changed yourselves, but the whole of the wizarding world." She paused to wipe a tear from her cheek. "I remember your sorting almost two decades ago. I knew then that there was something special and powerful in each of you. I could see his magic trying to heal you when you were petrified. You saved each other time and time and time and time again." Hermione and I chuckled along with the audience of our friends. After the room quieted again, McGonagall continued, "I was privileged to witness the two of you pledging your lives to one another exactly ten years ago today in my office."

McGonagall nodded to me. I took my left hand away from hers and wiped the happy tears that were slowly falling down her face. I whispered, "I love you" before clearing my throat and beginning my vows. "Hermione, you are one of the smartest, most beautiful, and completely amazing people I have ever met. You have been here for me through thick and thin, highs and lows, feasts and sketchy mushrooms with bad fish. You even stuck by me when I didn't want you or anyone else to be there."

Hermione whispered, "I thought we were never going to mention the mushrooms and bad fish again."

"Hush, woman! He is being romantic." George piped up to laughter and a smack on the back of the head from his wife and mother.

"Back to what I was saying, I have enjoyed every minute of the past twenty years we have stuck by each other. We have grown strong together. We have created four wonderful children together. I am excited to see what they will do in this world. Most of all, I promise to love you with my entire being and to never to abandon you again."

Hermione lean close to me and placed a light kiss on my cheek. Before she pulled back, she whispered private words of love.

For the audience to hear, she said, "I love you, Harry James Potter. I didn't think I could love anyone as much as I love you. I am grateful for every moment we have together and with our children. I didn't think I could be any more blessed."

I knew a quizzical look flashed across my face because she paused to giggle.

She smiled wide and quietly said, "Stag should be here in about six months."

I grabbed my wife and held her tight before what she said registered with our crowd of friends. I knew I would be forever grateful that she and I no longer wait for anything, even contraception spells.

_Author's Note~_

_I hope you enjoyed reading this story. I certainly enjoyed writing it!_

_DuckiBelle_

_P.S. I am almost done rewriting my next story. It is a Fred & Hermione story. I have a question though: is longer chapters & less posts better or more shorter chapters? Just send me your choice in a PM._

_Hermione's wedding gown (just picture this white dress in a pale gold with a much longer train): i00. wsphoto/ v0/ 654046144/ WD060- Fashion- Crystal- Beaded- Corset- Tulle- Luxury- Long- Train- Ball- Gown- Wedding- Dresses- _


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